Mass Effect: Children of the Moons
by OmegaEntertainment
Summary: "Humanity always knew, when we looked to the stars, that there could be an apex predator out there. However, while we knew that those predators could find us at the heart of our civilization, we could have never predicted that they would offer us Preservation." Rated M for Necromorphs and Brethren Moons, no other reason is needed for the rating.
1. Chapter 1: Apex

**Mass Effect: Children of the Moons.**

 **Chapter One: Apex.**

* * *

 **Sol System, Mars, 2148 AD**

The three explorers of the Systems Alliance could only stare in awe as the ancient door opened, revealing the entrance to what could only be an alien structure.

Sharing wary and grim glances, the three raised their Beretta ARX100 Assault Rifles and moved into the structure, each methodically keeping watch for the slightest possibility of hostile intervention.

After a few minutes of combing the structure, the three finally approached what seemed to have been an alien command center, most of the consoles inactive with the exception of a large central obelisk.

"Alp-a -ne, r-sp-nd."

The explorers could only attempt to respond as both their low-light and thermal imaging began to fill with static.

"This is Alpha One, Command, you're breaking up, thermals and low-light imaging seem to be encountering interference."

Lieutenant Prescott Bayman ordered his fellow explorers back to the entrance of the room.

As the signal and imaging cleared, the three repeated their report, "Command, thermals, comms, and low-light seem to be encountering interference as we get closer to the alien artifact."

"Copy that, Alpha One, hold position until additional reinforcements and a science team are able to reach-"

All three members of Alpha One raised their weapons as they heard what seemed to be every door in the alien compound shut in unison.

"Sir, the artifact, it seems to be glowing."

Bayman tilted his head to the point at which he could stare at his fellow Marine while still keeping one eye down the sight of his weapon, only to see that both the red and green glows in the visor lenses that signified thermal and low-light imaging had shut off, the Marine staring at the artifact without the use of his alternate vision modes.

Disabling his own alternate vision modes, he could easily see that the Marine was correct, the artifact itself seemed seemed to be bathing the room in a pale green glow.

Meanwhile, Private Tiana Bernard could only stare at the artifact in contemplation with her weapon now holstered, "Sir... I think the artifact is trying to make contact."

Bayman continued to hold his weapon at the ready, only now the barrel was pointing at the artifact itself, "What do you mean, Private?"

Bernard began to explain her theory, "Sir, as soon as Command told a science team to move in, both our comms and the doors shut off, including the one leading out of this room, which would stand to reason that the artifact wanted _us_."

Bayman glanced at her, gripping his weapon tighter, "Why would an ancient artifact _want_ anything? Why would it want three armed Marines in the same room as it? Wouldn't it make more sense for it to want everyone around it to be unarmed?"

The Private could only shrug and continue to stare at the artifact, "I don't know, sir, it might be because we were the first things it encountered, after all, who knows how long it's been here."

"Plus, there may also be the fact that it wanted to make contact with as few people as possible, keep the sample size low, that sorta thing?"

Corporal Hudson let out a grim laugh, "Tiana, has anyone ever told you that you have some creepy ass theories? You make it sound like the artifact is gonna try and eat us or some shit."

Bernard gave him a smirk in return, though neither of her squad-mates could have seen it behind the full-cover helmets each of them wore, "Oh, go fuck yourself, Rolland."

"Eyes in front, Marines, the artifact is doing... something."

Within moments, each of them had their ARX100s in hand, keeping the alien device in their sights as the pale green glow began to intensify.

Of course, nothing could have prepared them as Bernard was suddenly lifted off the floor and pulled toward the artifact.

Her fellow Marines could only holster their weapons and seize an arm each, holding on with all of their strength as the artifact exerted an unseen force upon their bodies in an attempt to draw them closer to it.

The three continued to try and fight off the unseen force, only to have Hudson and Bayman's feet pulled from the floor in the same fashion as Bernard's.

As all three members of Alpha One continued to try and escape the pull of the artifact, they suddenly ceased their combined struggle as they were drawn into range of the Beacon...

The Protheans... they were the ones who had controlled this observation outpost so long ago... They had watched over humanity as they grew, until it was time for them to leave...

No, they had fled... Fled from those they called Reapers... The Others, the Moons, had given them a choice when they first encountered the Destroyers... Preservation or Destruction... The Protheans, they had refused, and so the Others left, retreating to their hidden systems and waiting for the next cycle...

The Destroyers, the Reapers... They had swept across the Prothean Empire with ease, ripping apart fleet after fleet as the Protheans did all they could to hold them back...

Yet, all of it was for naught, as the Destroyers had only taken years to Harvest the Protheans, leaving the Citadel and Relays for the species of the next Cycle to stumble upon...

The three members of Alpha One fell to the floor, their last sensations before unconsciousness claimed them being the shouts of their fellow soldiers and the Beacon deactivating itself, both of it's final purposes fulfilled.

As the three unconscious Marines were carried out of the Prothean Observation Outpost, none of them could have known the second purpose of the Beacon, for, unknown to all on the surface, the moon known to Humanity as Ganymede awoke...

* * *

 **Sol System, Orbit of Earth, 2148 AD, SSV _Stalingrad_.**

Captain Gage Hackett could only stare in shock and horror as one of Jupiter's moons began moving of it's own accord, unfurling what seemed to be tentacles from it's surface and propelling itself toward Earth itself.

As the crew watched, the moon known as Ganymede stopped just far enough so that what little gravity it possessed would not pull the Cruiser toward it's surface, and then... it spoke through their communication systems, seeming to have almost zero issues connecting to their ship.

"We are the Brethren Moons, the Protheans once knew you as Humanity... are we correct in our assumption?"

Gage Hackett could only give an incoherent stutter as his communications officer responded in his Captain's stead, "Y-you would be correct, yes, w-we are known as humans."

"To whom do we speak, human?"

The Captain gathered himself, directing the comms officer to patch him into the connection, "You are now speaking to Captain Gage Hackett of the Human Systems Alliance, may I ask who you are?"

"We are the Brethren Moons."

Gage Hackett blinked, and wondered how dense this thing could be, "Okay, so that's your species name, but _who_ are _you_?"

"We are the Brethren Moons."

Before the Captain could voice his annoyance with the moon-sized entity, his communications officer cleared his throat and patched back into the connection, "Captain, it could be that the entity is some sort of hivemind, it might not _have_ another name for itself."

Then, the full implications of what the entity called itself hit the communications officer at full force, "C-Captain... what did the entity call itself again?"

Gage Hackett considered that question for a second, "It called itself the Brethren Moons..." The man realized exactly what his communications officer was getting at, and he verbalized his thoughts with two words as he stared at Ganymede in sudden horror, "Oh... fuck."

However, the First Lieutenant could feel his heart sinking, even if he did not know exactly what conclusion they had come to, "Captain, what is it, what's wrong?"

Captain Gage Hackett could only utter a single sentence as he continued to stare at the entity with his features still covered in horrified realization, "Lieutenant, that- that entity, I don't think it's the only one, I have reason to believe that we just made First Contact with an entire species of moon-sized entities with unknown capabilities..."

The bridge crew of the SSV _Stalingrad_ could only stare at their commanding officer in horror as he finished speaking, "God help us... if these things are hostile, then it would be the end of us all..."

"We are not hostile to humanity, and we only offer you one thing."

The Captain could only gather himself enough to ask one question, "Wha-what is it?"

"Preservation, Preservation from the coming storm, we are not all that waits in the darkness, the Destroyers will come, as they have before, they will begin the Harvest of this cycle, and there will be nothing capable of stopping them, many have tried...

"All have failed...

"We offer you shelter from them, become one with us, and we will retreat as one, as we have time and time again."

* * *

 **Earth, United Nations Parliament Main Chamber, 2148.**

To say that the situation in the main chamber of the United Nations was complicated would be a vast understatement.

The American and Russian Presidents were conversing quietly, each pondering how they would respond to the offer given by the alien entity currently in orbit of their only world.

The Chinese President brought up the idea of nuking the entity, however, this idea was immediately shot down due to the entity's relatively close proximity to the planet and their own ships, ships that they would desperately need if the entity proved to be hostile.

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom brought up the idea of accepting its offer, which each of the people in the room considered before recognizing that they would need more information on what its 'Preservation' entailed and how it would do so.

With that in mind, they decided to open communications with the entity, the American President getting straight to the point, "We have considered your offer, and we would like to know what it entails for us."

"You would become part of us, your entire species would be brought into us, you would become a Brethren Moon, as many species have done before you."

"This would serve to deprive the Destroyers of your biomatter, allowing us to continue gathering numbers while lowering the possible numbers of the Destroyers in order to eventually strike back and destroy the Illogical Machines."

The Russian President could see that this answer startled and terrified many of the other members of the United Nations, and he decided to ask another question, "How would we, ahem... how would we become a Brethren Moon, if we accepted?"

"We will show you."

The gathered members of the United Nations barely had enough time to cry out in shock as they each crumpled to the floor, visions of the exact process of the Brethren Moon's Preservation flashing through their minds.

Of course, had they been able to process anything except the visions, they would have heard the sounds of their world stop as every human being on the planet cried out in pain as one, their minds filled with visions of the Brethren Moon's Preservation and exactly what it entailed.

For those few seconds, humanity as a whole knew all the Brethren Moons had done across each and every Cycle and beyond, from the perspective of the Moons themselves to the many species' that had chosen to accept their offer, for those few seconds, all of humanity knew and understood each other in a way they could never describe.

With those memories, humanity also knew of the Destroyers, the Leviathans, and all the Moons themselves knew of the species that the Reapers had Harvested, from the Inusannon, the Protheans, even the Moon's observation of the conflict known as the Metacon War.

With the knowledge of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of cycles, humanity knew exactly how unprepared they were, and knew that they needed the assistance of the Brethren Moons themselves in order to stop the Destroyers once and for all.

Linked by the power of the Black Markers embedded in the Moon formerly known as Ganymede, humanity itself pushed everything they had upon the Moons, not to overcome or control them, no, for such a thing would have been outright suicide, potentially causing the Moons themselves to retract their offer and leave humanity to their fate.

Instead, in those seconds, humanity, as a single entity, _pleaded_ with the Moons, baring their hopes, their dreams, their hatred, and their fear, all for the Brethren Moons to experience as they processed the sudden desperation of an entire species pleading with them, appealing to the memories of all of the species that made up the colossal entities as their entire species cried out in desperate fear and terror, pleading for anything the Moons could do to help, anything they could do to assist in not just hiding from the coming storm, but fighting it, standing against the Destroyers together in order to finally stop the cycles once and for all.

Within those few seconds, humanity as a whole asked the Moons a series of questions, questions that told them all they needed to know of this species and proving their resolve and desperation to not just survive, but _live_.

 _"What stops us from fighting them? What stops us from taking the fight to the Reapers themselves? What stops us from destroying the Destroyers themselves once and for all?"_

"Many have tried, all have failed."

 _"They died divided, when humans want to do something, we let nothing stand in our way, and we will not let the failures of others dictate whether we succeed or fail."_

 _"We must fight together, or die divided."_

"The races of this cycle will not see it this way, they will fear you."

 _"They would be right to fear us, you know exactly who and what we are, you have seen the hearts and souls of us all."_

"We have."

 _"Then you know that we will never let the Reapers crush us under their mechanical feet, that we will always resist them, right down to the last of our kind, as long as a single human lives, we will never forget the atrocities the Destroyers have committed, we will never forgive them for what they have done, we will fight, even if we die in the process."_

"We know that, humanity."

 _"Then why not work together, show the Reapers exactly what they are messing with, show them that we will_ never _back down."_

"... Are you sure you wish to take this path, humanity? There will be no going back..."

 _"So be it, then, we've never been good at caring for our own safety."_

"You would sacrifice yourselves for races that you have never met before?"

 _"YES, we would."  
_

"Why would you do so?"

 _"They do not deserve to die without a chance to truly live, if we die protecting them, then so be it."_

"We... see."

 _"So, Preservers? Feel like killing some giant space cuttlefish?"_

The Brethren Moons took a second to process the absurdity of that statement, then they sent a burst of vindictive pleasure through the link, each of the species within the collective consciousnesses of the ancient entities crying out in agreement with humanity, all of them desiring the destruction of the ones known as the Reapers...

"Yes, humanity, we _do_."

With that final statement, the Brethren Moons cut the mental link between themselves and humanity, as they arrived in Sol, hundreds of them, each of the moon and planet-sized entities fully prepared for war, not against humanity, but against the Reapers themselves.

In the span of ten seconds, humanity had now made an alliance with entities as old as the Reapers themselves, each one an entire species, all of them ready to finally fight _back_ against the Destroyers themselves.

As they watched the Moons arrive, arraying themselves to defend the home of humanity to the last, every human looked to one another, all of them united in their understanding of each other and their purpose, they may die, they may fall one day, but they would _fight_ until their end, knowing that the Reapers would only stop until their own eventual destruction.

With that, the shipyards of humanity began the construction of new ships, all based off of the highly advanced technology possessed by the species that now made up the Brethren Moons themselves.

The speed at which these ships were created startled the many species' making up the Brethren Moons, the entire species now united in two goals as they put all they had into the construction of naval ships of the many human classifications, and even some that were not human, from human Corvettes to Tau Volanti Frigates to Battleships and even Super-Heavy-Dreadnoughts, all based off of the human's newfound understating of the technology they now possessed from the species that had accepted the offer of Preservation before them.

Within seconds, humanity had gained access to technology they had only thought of as science-fiction at best, and an even larger amount of technology that they had never even thought had the potential to exist, and as the Moons watched, humanity as a whole prepared for war with the bringers of the Harvest, a war they would fight until their extinction if necessary, all to end the cycle of galactic genocide that had been occurring for millions upon millions of years before they had even achieved sentience.

United in their purpose, humanity prepared for war with the Reapers themselves...

* * *

 **A/N: Holy fuck, this took so long to write, mainly because I had a hard time motivating myself, but by the Multiverse was it fucking _worth_ it, welcome, everyone, to Mass Effect: Children of the Moons, and, rest assured, this wild ride will not stop until the Reapers get their cuttlefish teeth kicked in.**


	2. Chapter 2: Second Contact

**Mass Effect: Children of the Moons.**

 **Chapter Two: Second Contact.**

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 **A/N: Can I just say that, holy shit, I did _not_ expect such an immediate response for this story, I mean, hell, as I'm writing this, I've already seen four reviews, eight favorites, and twelve follows, I mean, that's more than most of my other stories, and they have multiple chapters to this story's _one_.**

 **Thank you all so much for the support, and I think I'll get to the reviews now, that way I can get to the chapter itself faster, this shit isn't really capable of writing itself.**

 **I'll try not to reply to one sentence reviews in the later chapters, in order to make sure that half the fucking page doesn't turn into review answering.**

 **kamikage86: "Thank you, and don't worry, as I said before, I'm not stopping until at least one Reaper gets its cuttlefish teeth kicked in by either my significantly upgraded Alliance or the Brethren Moons themselves."**

 **Toolazytologin (Guest Account): "I am honored to have apparently exceeded your expectations, I repeat my earlier Reaper/cuttlefish statement, and honestly, just these few reviews alone are giving me motivation, as the story goes on, for all I know, they'll fucking supercharge me."**

 **hunter 139: "Do you think anyone was?**

 **"Now, the reason they allied with humanity, from a story standpoint, is because I wanted to do something unique with them. Every Dead Space story I'm currently looking at in the Dead Space and Mass Effect crossover section either has humanity developing Shockpoint with (Apparently) no Moons, the Brethren Moons taking over the ME galaxy for some fucking reason, the Brethren Moons and Reapers apparently working together to eat everyone, or the Brethren Moons outright replacing the Reapers entirely."**

 **"However, I decided to do my own take on the Moons, having them act in opposition to the Reapers and the cycle."**

 **"If I had the Brethren Moons simply eat humanity without so much as a warning, well, one, it wouldn't be called 'Children of the Moons', it'd be called 'Brethren Moons eat everyone then decide to go fuck off somewhere'."**

 **"If I did something like that, then the Brethren Moons might as well have _replaced_ the Reapers, for all the story would have changed."**

 **"Instead, I had the Moons become an enemy to the Reapers, constantly hiding during the cycles and offering Preservation to any species advanced enough to become a target for the Reapers."**

 **"As for why they don't just crush the Reapers, well, think of it this way, unlike the Reapers, the Brethren Moons of this story are actively safeguarding the genetic legacy of entire species' within themselves."**

 **"Also, considering that you're wondering how the rest of the galaxy will react, well, the title says it all, it's time for, as the title itself says, Second Contact."**

 **General Kenobi: "Well, thank you, and if you think I'm going to abandon this story, then you are sorely mistaken (Refer to the repeated cuttlefish statement above, friend)."**

 **Now, enough delays, let's get straight into this shit!**

* * *

Humanity, with their knowledge of the earlier civilizations, deactivates the newly discovered Charon Relay after sending a single scout force through the Relay and back, locking the coordinates of the Arcturus System into every type of FTL travel they possess and deploying a fleet of advanced warships to guard the only Primary Relay leading into the Sol System, including two dozen Brethren Moons in the Arcturus Relay Defense Force.

Humanity then expands through both the Relays and alternate FTL, colonizing several systems in the Exodus Cluster, Arcturus Stream, and Petra Nebula, as well as several dozen other systems separated from the Relay network and only reliably accessed by either the Brethren Moons or Alliance alternate FTL travel.

Each individual colony is given six Brethren Moons maximum, with less depending on the amount of natural moons already in orbit of the planet, linked together by tendrils of bio-matter and the mineral deposits from their Convergences, appearing to be nothing more from the outside than an apparently natural occurrence in geosynchronous orbit around the planet itself, with colonies also being set up upon the now immobile Moons.

Human spaceports are constructed both groundside and in orbit of the planet itself, each armed with the advanced technology of those who had accepted Preservation before their alliance with humanity.

As a result of the brief Marker connection experienced by humanity, crime across the entire species has dropped to zero due to their newfound understanding of both each other and the common threat they now face.

Humanity begins slowly accessing Mass Relays in colonized systems, hoping to come across the other species of the current cycle and warn them of the Destroyers...

* * *

 **Shanxi System, Relay 478 (Shanxi-Theta Relay), 2157.**

With five Brethren Moons now in orbit of the natural planet and sporting their own colonies, orbital shipyards and defense platforms, the latter two of the three now run by AIs based off of the brain patterns of adult humans and replicated neural patterns of some Preserved, the 51st Relay Exploration Force prepared to open the local Primary Relay, their weapons and shields charged in case of an early contact with the Destroyer Vanguard, alternate FTL drives charged in case of the need for an emergency jump.

With barely a second of hesitation, the navigation's officer of the SSV _Iridescent_ opened the connection to the Primary Relay, causing each of the sixteen human warships to accelerate to Relay FTL speeds, sending the ships through as the Relay on the other end activated in turn.

"Sir, five unknown contacts in-system!"

"Weapons and shielding checked, we are fully charged and prepared for combat!"

"Rear Admiral, unknown contacts do not match Destroyer profiles, I repeat, unknowns do _not_ match Destroyer profiles!"

"Unknown contacts are moving to intercept! Rear Admiral, unknowns have jumped to FTL speeds, calculating trajectories and correcting aim to account for potential emergence points!"

"Sir, contacts have been hailed, they are not responding and their Element Zero weapons are charged!"

"This is Cruiser SSV _Tokyo_ to Battle-cruiser SSV _Iridescent_ , requesting orders."

Rear Admiral Nicolaus Grennell could only give a startled jump as his mind finally caught up to the realization that this was apparently Second Contact, and that, if he did not sort the situation immediately, it had the potential to become very messy, "All ships, hold fire! I repeat, hold fire! Do not fire unless fired upon!"

A round of 'Understood's and 'Yes, Rear Admiral's resounded through the comms as the man tried to think of how he could get them out of this mess.

As the unknown ships exited FTL at a range of two hundred kilometers, he could only hope that the aliens did not force them to engage, as it would undoubtedly turn very bad, very quickly.

The ships were mostly Corvette length, at around five hundred meters in length, while the single Frigate appeared to be nearly seven hundred meters in length.

However, the Rear Admiral's hopes were dashed as one of the unknown Corvettes fired its main weapon at the front of the immobile Battle-cruiser, sending him rocking back in his seat as the energy shields were slightly depleted from the Element Zero accelerated slug, though the Black Marker plating remained unaffected.

With only one order given via a single blinking yellow light, one of his Frigates fired, two of its six Plasma Cannons effortlessly shearing off the wings of the avian ship as its fellow Corvettes and the single Frigate opened fire in retaliation.

As his ships were forced to defend themselves against the unknown aggressors, Rear Admiral Grennell could only watch, stunned, as each of his Frigates easily dispatched the hostile Corvettes with particle lances, plasma torpedoes, and electromagnetic pulses.

Within seconds, the avian ships were floating in the cold void of space, the Frigate sent spinning slowly in place due to the force of one of the particle lances from the HSA Battlecruiser shearing off its left wing, every system barring life support disabled and their wings both figuratively and literally clipped.

However, the Relay on the other side of the system soon opened, disgorging a fleet of two hundred avian warships of various lengths, from the five hundred meter Corvettes to seven hundred meter Frigates to what appeared to be-

"Rear Admiral, this is the SSV _Madrid_ , we have identified an enemy Battlecruiser! Do we engage?"

Grennell never took his eyes off of the potentially hostile Battlecruiser as he reactivated his fleet-wide comm system, "No, _Madrid_ , do not engage. 51st, we are to retreat to the Shanxi Relay, we will send word of the unknown force through our comm Markers and prepare to hold back the unknowns if necessary."

"They may not be the Destroyers, but they are still a potential threat, just because most of their ships are smaller than ours do not mean they are necessarily weak, do you understand?"

Each of the Captains responded with grim determination, each willing to fight to their last breath to defend humanity.

As the sixteen ships of the 51st REF retreated to the Relay, they left behind the disabled avian ships that had chosen to fire upon them without knowing exactly who or what they were firing upon...

* * *

 **Turian 781st Patrol Flotilla, 2157 CE, Five minutes prior to Second Contact and hostile engagement.**

General Desolas Arterius could not believe his eyes, as they seemed to be telling him that the previously untouched Primary Relay at the other side of the system was activating, and yet...

"Charge weapon and barriers, Spirits know what could come out of that Relay."

All four of his Frigates and single Cruiser did exactly as he had ordered, knowing that even if something equivalent to the Rachni didn't come out of the Relay, the unknown could still be considered lawbreakers due to their opening of the Relay.

However, he could have not have stopped the shocked shivering of his plates as he beheld the sight of a one thousand and two hundred fifty meter long alien Dreadnought, his crew scrambling to respond as the apparent warship was soon joined by three other ships just under nine hundred and fifty meters in length, which were soon followed by twelve ships with lengths of seven hundred meters, each of them easily Cruiser length.

The widening of mandibles and shocked gasps of horror held his crew in place for only a second before they went back to their duties.

Desolas, staring at the unknown formation in shock, could only give time for one horrifying thought, _'By the Spirits, that is no exploration force, these unknowns have sent an entire Dreadnought flotilla to secure a single system!'_

Then, his Turian discipline kicked back in, "All ships, initiate FTL jump, get us as close as possible, their ships may not be able to fight properly at ranges under three hundred kilometers."

With that single sentence, the Turian ships initiated their conventional FTL, getting them within two hundred kilometers of the unknown combat fleet.

However, as their sensors re-calibrated to scan their new position, they found the weapons of the unknown combat flotilla pointed straight at them, having apparently tracked them _through_ FTL.

The General could only stare in shock at the speed at which the unknowns had responded, some of their weapons already in position to fire upon the Turian flotilla, the others almost instantly rotating to face the Turian flotilla even as their own weapons were forced to recharge due to having diverted power to the FTL drives.

Desolas could have never accounted for the actions of a single terrified Frigate Captain as he ordered his ship to fire upon the unknowns, panicking as he realized that multiple potentially hostile ships had their weapons pointed directly at his ship and fully charged, resulting in a single half charged mass accelerator slug impacting the front of the unknown Dreadnought.

Without a second of warning, twin spheres of red energy came from two of the turrets on the sloped deck of one of the unknown Cruisers, slicing through the wings of the Turian Frigate and leaving it drifting in space as the rest of the Turian flotilla responded with mass accelerator fire.

To their mounting horror, their mass accelerated slugs seemed to do nothing to the unknown warships except causing them to shake slightly as their own barriers snapped into place, vaporizing the Element Zero accelerated slugs as they hit, leaving not even a scratch upon the black armor of the warships.

Within seconds, it was over, each of his ships were dead in space, his own Cruiser spinning slowly in place as Desolas belatedly realized that every system save life support had been disabled with almost contemptuous ease.

As he and his crew just barely managed to catch a glance of Hierarchy reinforcements entering the system, Desolas swore that he would find the idiot who had put them in this situation and give him the worst verbal lashing of his life.

When four Frigates managed to stabilize his ship, he had the sight of the THS _Warrior_ filled his heart with shocked pride, right before he realized exactly what the Dreadnought was moving towards...

It, along with the rest of the two hundred strong reinforcement fleet, were heading straight toward the Relay and the unknown flotilla surrounding it.

With barely a moment of hesitation, he sprinted toward the airlock which was even now connecting to his ship, eyes wide with horror as he processed exactly what this could turn into if the reinforcement fleet was allowed to engage the unknowns.

He then proceeded to shove his way past the Hierarchy soldiers evacuating his crew from the disabled Cruiser, the soldiers snapping into a salute at his appearance and showing confusion at his expression as he rushed toward the bridge of the Frigate.

Barely allowing the doors time to open as he saw the reinforcement fleet now baring down upon the unknown flotilla, who still had not opened fire despite their proximity to the Turian fleet, he shouted at the Captain frantically, "Get me a connection to the reinforcement fleet, now!"

The Captain barely had time to initiate the connection and let out a surprised "Spirits..." as he was pushed aside.

Desolas, his eyes wide with terror, frantically shouted into the comm as the weapons of the reinforcement fleet began to charge, "This is General Desolas Arterius of the 781st patrol flotilla! Do not engage! I repeat, do _not_ engage! _THEY ARE NOT THE AGGRESSORS!"_

With barely a second to spare, the Turian ships powered down their weapons as the unknown flotilla suddenly shifted, bringing their Dreadnought to the center of the formation as the Cruisers and Frigates surrounded the massive ship in a double layered defensive sphere.

Of course, they could have never expected a portal of what seemed to be dark energy surrounding the ships, nor did they have time to stare in horror as what appeared to be a small moon appeared where the ships had once been.

However, they did have time to realize that each of the ships had shifted position without a beat, activating what seemed to be FTL drives and moving out of the gravity well of the small moon as the Turian ships frantically backpedaled in their haste to get away from the gravity well of the moon.

Then, more and more unknown ships poured out of the Relay, ranging in size from Frigate to Cruiser to Dreadnought and _beyond_ , all of them gathering in orbit of the moon as the previous flotilla seamlessly integrated itself into the combat fleet that had suddenly appeared inside the system.

As the Turian reinforcement fleet stared in shock and horror at what seemed to be an endless stream of warships flowing into the system, their Dreadnought numbers alone easily breaking the Treaty of Farixen ten times over.

Then, with an unheard screech, the surface of the moon cracked open, revealing what seemed to be a large monstrosity of red flesh embedded into the surface of the moon itself.

Desolas barely managed to see tendrils of red flesh coming from the surface, the creature apparently extending far beneath the crust of the moon as a terrifying realization came to the forefront of his mind, "Spirits... that... thing, it's not just extending underneath the surface of the moon..."

The crew members of the Frigate started, staring at him with eyes filled with terror as he finished his horrified realization, "It _is_ the moon..."

* * *

 **A/N: Damn, it feels good to write this shit, I know it wasn't the conflict you were all hoping for, even I was planning on having the Turians continue their attack until I realized just how much of a suspense gold-mine this scene could and did turn out to be.**

 **Also, holy fucking shit, I have _never_ gotten two chapters done in a single day! That just goes to show that can I surprise even myself with how much I enjoy writing this story.**


	3. Chapter 3: Slightly Aggressive Diplomacy

**Mass Effect: Children of the Moons.**

 **Chapter Three: Slightly Aggressive Diplomacy.**

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 **A/N: Holy fucking shit, you all continue to surprise me, I've never gotten this much support on any of my stories before.**

 **Now, for the reviews.**

 **kamikage (Chapter 2 Review): "No worries, remember the cuttlefish promise, and yes, I know, I'm evil, but I've gotta keep you all on your toes somehow, hmm?"**

 **theAtomicTitan0: "Well, I'm glad I exceeded your expectations, though your choice of an analogy could use a little work."**

 **fordkdn: "Well then, thank you, and, if you are really worried about me stopping the story, I ask that you also remember the cuttlefish promise, and I'm honestly not sure if I'm doing something horribly wrong or horribly right in order to make you worry that much about me stopping."**

 **AdamZeeper: "I have no fucking clue whether or not this'll be HFY, though I am wondering what HWTF means."**

 **CrazedGammaMan1721: "Thank you, kind sir."**

 **moon009 (Guest Account, Chapters 1 and 2 Reviews): "For your first one about the galaxy being fucked up, remember, in this, the Moons are giving the races they encounter a choice, the Reapers, however, are not."**

 **"Yes, because this story _is_ called _Children_ of the Moons, not "Humanity becomes Moons", though, no worries, I have plans within plans, even if I'm secretly winging this entire fucking story as I write it."**

 **"Hell, I've even made humanity's new technology intentionally vague, which basically means 'Send suggestions, I'm not good at making up new technology!'"**

 **"As for your chapter 2 Review, I have to say, 'Fucking perfect response, 10/10 from me.'"**

 **dragonnargus: "I'm going to guess that you're referring to the stories in which neither side is willing to admit that they are wrong, such as the Turians shooting first despite it apparently being First Contact with a new species and the Alliance or any number of replacement versions immediately blitzkrieging the Turians out of blind fear for their continued existence?"**

 **"Well, in this, the Turians _did_ shoot first due to the completely logical panic of a Turian Captain suddenly presented with unknown weapons that can apparently track through FTL, while the Alliance only disabled the ships instead of outright destroying them due to the fact that the half-powered slug barely did any damage to the shields alone."**

 **EyeCU (Guest Account): "Same here, I miss it as well, even though, to be completely honest, I've only played Dead Space 2."**

 **Robot Sparky: "Thanks, it's good to see that people finally enjoy at least one of my stories."**

 **Ilikebob: "Yep, you don't exactly see that everyday."**

 **TentaclesoftheVoid: "Again, refer to the cuttlefish promise, I'm working on it."**

 **DragonLatios (Guest Account): "I'm just going to say it right now, the Markers and Indoctrination will cancel each other out, and the older generation of humanity (Those that were linked by the Ganymede Marker during First Contact) will be immune to indoctrination entirely, and yes, that includes Jack Harper."**

 **Madara123: "Yes, they are, you will see."**

 **guest (Guest Account): "No, they can't be infected in this, because that'd be cheap, however, the Moons are immune to indoctrination, because if they weren't, that'd also be cheap, plus, if they weren't immune to it, the plot of this story wouldn't even occur due to the Brethren Moons being able to operate within the cycle itself, in which case they would simply be able to obliterate any defenses a civilization created as soon as they because advanced enough for the giant space cuttlefish to Harvest."**

* * *

 **Relay 478 System, 2157 AD, Ten minutes after Second Contact, Alliance _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought _Everest_.**

As the humans of the Alliance watched, the Brethren Moon known as Tau Volantus stared at the Turian fleet with something reminiscent of annoyance, before they were soon contacted by the colossal entity.

"We ask what you wish to do with these entities, humanity."

Admiral Steven Hackett of the SSV _Everest_ sighed, "I wish to make contact with the unknown fleet."

"Very well, humanity."

Within seconds, the bridge screen of the _Everest_ lit up as the Brethren Moon forced a connection between the communication systems of the two ships, one a potentially hostile Battle-cruiser, the other a Super-Heavy Dreadnought of the United Species Alliance.

Before him was a bipedal avian over six feet in height, wearing grey armor over what appeared to be a metallic carapace, both of its arms resting at its side, with the alien's taloned right hand hovering near its pistol, "This is General Sparatus of the Turian Hierarchy Dreadnought _Warrior_ , who and what am I speaking with?"

Admiral Hackett gave the alien a second before responding, "This is Admiral Steven Hackett of the Human Species Alliance _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought _Everest_ , I am a member of the species known as humanity."

The now identified Turian took a moment to stare at him in suspicion, "Alright, let's just say I believe that, then what exactly is that red monstrosity and why is it embedded into a _moon_ of all things?"

The Admiral gave a grim smile, "I'll let it explain that in a moment, but before it does, just know that it is an ally of humanity and will not attack unless it perceives you to be a threat."

Sparatus widened his mandibles in what Hackett could only guess was an expression of confusion, "What do you mean? How would something like that be able to explain-"

"We are the Brethren Moons, you have attacked the ones known as humanity, it is only due to their willingness to make contact that we speak to you at all, had you attacked us before we offered them Preservation, we would have left you to the Destroyers."

Hackett rolled his eyes in exasperation, "Not helping, Tau Volantus."

"We are aware of that, humanity, we are simply stating fact."

The Turian could only stare in horror as he and his fleet processed exactly what had just occurred, "You have a moon-sized entity as an ally?!"

"We are the Brethren Moons."

Admiral Hackett could only shake his head at the actions of the Moon, "Now, I believe that we can all agree that this was just a massive misunderstanding, if you would like, we can bring you through the Relay to one of our colonies in order to sort the situation out without the need for a pointless standoff."

General Sparatus glared at the human with obvious mistrust written all over its expression, "How exactly can we be sure that you will not simply destroy us once we are within your territory?"

The Admiral gave another grim smile, "Believe me, if we wanted to destroy your ships, we'd have already done so, instead, our initial Relay Exploration Flotilla only fired when fired upon, disabling your Corvettes and Frigate without causing permanent or fatal damage."

The Turian could only stare as he silently processed what he had heard, idly wondering if it could be considered an insult, "Corvettes? Frigate? What do you mean?"

Steven Hackett gave the Turian a look of confusion, "The five ships which initially engaged our Exploration Flotilla, were those not Corvette and Frigate length?"

Sparatus gave shocked glances toward the 781st, which were even now being pulled to the back of the fleet's formation by their fellow ships, "Human, those were four Frigates and a Cruiser by our standard, are you telling me that the warships which disabled the 781st were not of Dreadnought and Cruiser classifications?"

The Admiral's next words shocked the entire Turian fleet into horrified silence, "No, those were four Frigates and a Battle-cruiser, why?"

The mandibles of the Turian General widened in horror as he realized exactly how outmatched they truly were, their only Dreadnought was considered some kind of Cruiser variant, their Cruisers were considered Frigates, and their Frigates were considered Corvettes, though, he idly wondered, would their Corvettes be considered armed transports?

As he prepared to ask the human what their Dreadnoughts would be considered, the human beat him to the question by asking his own, "May I ask, General Sparatus? Do your Battle-cruiser analogues possess spinal mounted main weaponry?"

Sparatus gave the Admiral a wary glance before answering, "Yes, human, they do in fact possess spinal mounted weapons, why do you ask?"

Steven Hackett gave a nod of respect to the Turian and his fleet, "Ah... alright, so then they would be classified as Battleships under Alliance standards."

The Turian opened and closed his mandibles in worried contemplation, "You mentioned that one of your colonies was behind the Relay, correct?"

The human gave another nod, "Yes, the colony of Shanxi, Tau Volantus was one of the six Brethren Moons stationed there before we encountered your forces."

General Sparatus considered his options, _'Hmm, what should I do... Should I make contact with these "Humans" and their allies, or should I simply leave them to continue their existence without outside intervention...? After all, they appear to be capable of defending themselves, though the apparent destructive force of their exploration flotillas_ is _worrying...'_

 _'After all,'_ he thought, _'what would frighten a species able to field over a thousand warships with secondary weapons more powerful than those of Council Dreadnoughts...?'_

The Turian General weighed his options carefully, not sure of whether the unknowns could take a refusal as an insult or see acceptance as a sign of weakness, "I... accept your offer, Admiral Steven Hackett of the Human Species Alliance."

Sparatus' plates shivered as the entity apparently known as a Brethren Moon spoke, "Very well, Turian. As the human ships will most likely wish to escort your fleet to the system through the Destroyer Relay, we will have this one rejoin the others in their station."

With that, the entity formed another portal of the same dark energy around itself, disappearing as Sparatus' tactical display directed his forces into the middle of the now hollow formation, which seamlessly adjusted until the human warships were facing the Mass Relay with a hollow space left open for the smaller Turian fleet.

As the combined fleet prepared for a simultaneous Relay transit, the Turian could only wonder as what exactly he had gotten his people into by making contact with such a species, one that he felt, no... he _knew_ , would shake the galaxy when their existence and strength was revealed...

* * *

 **Shanxi System, Alliance Colony World Shanxi, 2157 CE. Fifteen minutes after Second Contact and accidental engagement of Turian 781st Patrol Flotilla.**

Sparatus could stare only in shock at the absolutely terrifying amount of defenses around the only planet in the system, as in appeared as if the outer orbit of the entire planet had been covered in nothing but defense platforms, with what seemed to be five artificial moon-sized bodies in orbit of the human world and connected by what appeared to be...

 _'Spirits, are those tendrils...?'_ The Turian could hardly believe his eyes, no matter how many times he thought it over, _'Of course... these humans have shown to be able to achieve many things we thought impossible, and, from what our sensors reported, they don't even_ use _Element Zero!'_

He could only stare in helpless shock as the Brethren Moon known as Tau Volantus moved toward the empty space left by its brethren, extending tendrils from its surface and connecting to the rest, in fact, had he not known beforehand, he would have thought it to be a natural, if completely unknown, phenomenon.

Now, however, he could only see the lunar bodies for what they truly were, the massive spheres of flesh which were apparently allies of the humans.

Staring at the surfaces of the other Moons, he could see buildings formed from their flesh upon their surfaces, contrasting heavily with the networks of metal and weapons held in their orbits, as he watched, an entire portion of the planetary orbital defense network shifted position in perfect sync as the rest of the orbital defense network filled the gap left by the newly reformed Tau Volantus defense network.

Asking one of his sensors officers to zoom in, he and the rest of his fleet could only watch helplessly as they spotted thousands of cylindrical, double helix, and cocoon-shaped shipyards, each with a width of ten kilometers, all of them mixed in seamlessly with the orbital defense network and producing more and more ships of various different designs, which, once completed. would move on automated vectors to link with a defense fleet in orbit, which was currently, if their VIs calculations were correct, half the size of the human fleet they had merged with, and the orbital fleet was _still growing_ , even as they watched in shocked terror.

Each of the Turians stare at the growing orbital fleet, silently contemplating that _this_ is the kind of species they had nearly gone to war with over a _Relay_ , of all things.

Sparatus himself decided to ask the human Admiral a single, but very important, question, "When did your species begin travelling the stars?"

The human Admiral gave him a grim smile much like that of an Asari, "Around ten years ago, why?"

The Turian General could only stare in horror at the numbers these humans had been able to create, "W-when did you begin building warships, then?"

Admiral Hackett gave the only answer he needed to, "As soon as we began travelling the stars, Turian, after all, we know exactly the kind of horrors that await us out in the void, and we have been preparing for _them_ ever since."

Even as he watched, one of the massive orbital shipyards unfurled from its cocoon phase into a double helix, releasing yet another of what the humans called Battle-cruisers, which was soon joined by three additional Cruisers and twelve Frigates, their numbers exactly the same as the ships that had disabled the 781st Patrol Flotilla.

That same shipyard then unfurled even further, shifting into cylindrical phase as the predetermined amount raw materials were pumped into its now empty storage, then reverting back to cocoon phase as it began the construction of yet another Alliance ship, the shipyard's Black Marker plating shielding the ship inside from both sight and hostile weapons fire as the Turians realized that every one of the orbital shipyards were currently going through that exact same process.

Each of the thousands of shipyards in orbit of the human world was constantly pumping out warships of all kinds of alien designs as the Turians idly wondered where and why they had gained so many different ship designs.

However, they could only watch in horror as they saw that the sphere of orbital defenses and shipyards also hid a second sphere of the exact same number underneath it, at exactly the same rotation speed as the outer sphere, though, given the kind of the capabilities the humans had already shown, Sparatus did not doubt that the sphere could very easily offset, revealing, if the layout was also identical, the second layer of orbital defenses and hiding the second layer of shipyards beneath the first layer of defense platforms, which would cause them to be able to continue producing ships while the defense platforms continued to fire on any potential invader.

After all, he thought, why should the humans not be capable of such a thing?

Orbital defense networks were completely unused by the Council, they had never needed them due to the fact that they had not been on a war footing in thousands of years...

As the fleet moved toward the planet, each of the human ships avoiding colliding with each other as easily as if they were of one mind, General Sparatus silently wondered what other surprises this new and highly advanced species had in store for him, and how they would affect the rest of the wider galaxy.

* * *

 **Alliance Colony World of Shanxi, on board the _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought SSV _Everest,_ 2157 CE.**

While the humans had allowed him to have eight guards, Sparatus still kept his pistol at his side as the shuttle touched down inside the massive warship.

As they disembarked, they were met by two humans wearing what seemed to dark hooded cloaks, their seemingly primitive style of clothing revealing nothing about their features except for what seemed to be missing skin around their revealed chins.

Without a word, the humans guided Sparatus and his guards to the bridge of the ship, a table having been set up behind the captain's chair, which swiveled as its occupant stood and walked over to the Turian General, extending his right in a greeting similar enough to that of the Asari that Sparatus was able to grasp the meaning of the gesture and shook the human's hand.

With that, Admiral Steven Hackett walked back to his chair and sat down, motioning for Sparatus to do the same as the cloaked humans moved to flank the human Admiral, almost as if they were his guards.

His soldiers glanced at the human guards, no doubt wondering how they would be able to defend their leader without weapons, while Sparatus sat down in the seat and began to speak, "I am, as you know, General Sparatus of the Turian Hierarchy Dreadnought _Warrior,_ and I am deeply sorry for our unprovoked attack upon your exploration flotilla."

The human nodded, "I know that, and, considering that there was not really any damage done to our ships, I would like to offer the services of one of our shipyards to repair the ships of the... what did you call it, again?"

Sparatus could only stare in shock as his soldiers did the same, "The 781st Turian Patrol Flotilla... though, if I may...?" Admiral Hackett nodded his assent, "Why would you allow us to utilize one of your thousands of shipyards? As it seems as if every one of them is currently producing ships."

The human smiled, "No worries, we can simply halt the next few Cruiser orders and use the materials meant for those to repair your ships."

What the human said next shocked the Turians to their core, "Besides, it's not as if these are our only shipyards, I'm sure the fleets won't mind a slight delay on a few Cruisers."

Meanwhile, Sparatus' eyes and mandibles were as widened as they could possibly be as he tried to process this terrifying bit of information, "I-I'm sorry, could you elaborate on that? Are you saying that you have multiple planets with more of these shipyard spheres in orbit?"

The human gave a grim smile, "No, I'm saying that we have multiple systems, with each planet possessing at least two layers of orbital spheres and at most six Brethren Moons."

Admiral Steven Hackett gave the stunned Turians a terrifying smile as they realized that they had encountered something _far_ worse than even the Rachni, "If it helps, this isn't actually our homeworld..."

* * *

 **Citadel Council Chambers, 2157 CE, two days after Second Contact.**

"One of your patrols did _what_!?"

The other two Councillors could only flinch as Tevos glared at them, each knowing the full power of her biotics and having no wish to experience them firsthand.

Secuteia, the Turian Councillor, could only hope that the good of the situation would be enough to calm her fellow Councillor down, "Well, I mean, no lives were lost, and the General of the reinforcement fleet did manage to resolve the issue in time."

The Asari appeared to visibly calm herself, finally allowing her biotic power to disperse as the two let out sighs of relief, "Explain, now."

Tanis opened his mouth, a silent glare from the Asari silencing the Salarian Councillor before he could speak as Secuteia read off of the report, "The Turian 781st Patrol Flotilla encountered sixteen unknown vessels, one Dreadnought, three Cruisers, and twelve Frigates, all coming from a previously dormant Primary Relay, identified as Relay 478.

"The leader of the 781st, one Desolas Arterius, then ordered the flotilla to jump as close as they could to the unknown ships, believing that, if they were hostile, the unknown ships would be unable to fire upon them at close range.

"However, one of the Captains panicked at seeing the turrets on the unknown Dreadnought rotate to face his ship, believing that they had tracked them through FTL, and fired a half power slug at the unknown Dreadnought..."

Tevos prepared to speak, though she was cut off by her fellow Councillor, "Which did no damage to the ship itself, instead shattering on an unknown type of Kinetic Barrier, at which point the unknown Dreadnought retaliated, cutting off the engines of the Frigate, leading the others to fire upon the unknown ships and, as such, the unknown ships cut off their engines as well.

"A reinforcement fleet under General Sparatus then jumped into the system via the local Primary Relay, the unknown warships then retreated to Relay 478 while Sparatus' reinforcement fleet recovered the 781st and moved to intercept the unknowns, however, as they were preparing to fire, they were stopped by this message from the ship that recovered General Arterius' Cruiser, a message sent by General Arterius himself."

Secuteia played the message on her Omni-Tool, "This is General Desolas Arterius of the 781st patrol flotilla! Do not engage! I repeat, do _not_ engage! _THEY ARE NOT THE AGGRESSORS!"_

The Turian Councillor continued, gesturing to the projector in the middle of the room as the events that occurred after the message were shown though the sensors of the THS _Warrior_.

As they watched, the unknown ships were suddenly enveloped in a sphere of dark energy as the Turian fleet retreated away from the newly spawned lunar body.

Then, thousands of ships were shown jumping in orbit of the moon as parts of its surface began to crack open, revealing an unknown creature made up of red flesh as a single transmission was unknowingly sent by Desolas Arterius, which sent chills down each of their spines and caused Secuteia's plates to shiver.

"Spirits... that... thing, it's not just extending underneath the surface of the moon...

"It _is_ the moon..."

With that, Secuteia cut the recording, "As of this moment, Sparatus has made contact with the unknown species, which call themselves humans, and their allies, entities which are known only as the Brethren Moons."

The other two Councillors could only stare in shock at the image before them, showing the human world surrounded by a twin layered sphere of orbital defenses and automated shipyards, as well as the six moon-sized entities in orbit of the planet, each with their own orbital sphere.

The Turian continued, "We must gain their favor by any means necessary-" She took this chance to glance at Tevos meaningfully, "Even if we may believe ourselves to be superior, it is now obvious that this species is fully capable of becoming either a rival or threat to the entire Citadel Council, and I do not just mean our species', I mean _all_ of us, and so, if we must, we will swallow our pride and hope to every deity we believe in that our meeting with these humans goes well."

The three shared a glance, Tevos' eyes showing the fear that each of them truly felt, Tanis' were a mix of curiosity and shock, while Secuteia's revealed her inner worry for the future of both the Citadel Council and her own people, as well as the pride she felt in both herself and her abilities as a Councillor of the Turian species.

With that shared glance, the three exited the private chamber, and prepared to meet the species that had turned everything they knew about the galaxy upon its head.

* * *

 **A/N: Holy fucking shit, this took a while, and let me just say that I am _very_ pleased with the results.**


	4. Chapter 4: Revelations of horror

**Mass Effect: Children of the Moons.**

 **Chapter Four: Revelations of horror.**

* * *

 **A/N: So, that... happened.**

 **kamikage86 (Chapter 3 Review): "Thank you, once again, for the support."**

 **Robot Sparky (Chapter 3 Review): "Uh, thanks for the hashtag?"**

 **Ilikebob: "I believe we discussed this in a PM, but I'll elaborate for everyone who doesn't know.**

 **Just as a notice, almost all of these ship classes do not have designations, though I do appreciate suggestions.**

 **Alliance Corvette: Around five hundred meters in length.**

 **Alliance Frigate: Seven hundred meters in length.**

 **Alliance Cruiser: Nine hundred and fifty meters in length.**

 **Alliance Battle-cruiser: One kilometer and two hundred fifty meters.**

 **Alliance Battleship: It shares the length of the Alliance Battle-cruiser, due to the Alliance Battle-cruiser actually being a Battleship hull with the spinal cannon replaced with Cruiser weaponry.**

 **Alliance Dreadnought: One kilometer and five hundred meters in length, this ship utilizes two heavy Battleship-grade spinal mounted cannons.**

 **Alliance Light Carrier: Based off of retrofitted Dreadnought hulls and designed to carry five hundred fighter-bombers, length is the same as the Alliance Dreadnought, but lacks a spinal mounted weapon and utilizes hundreds of Cruiser weight turrets for ship-to-ship combat and self-defense.**

 **Alliance Heavy Dreadnought: Two kilometers in length, utilizes large amounts of Cruiser weight weaponry in order to engage hostile ships at close range, break formations via short-range FTL jumps, and four Dreadnought-grade spinal mounted weapons to fight at medium to long range, it is effectively a small fleet in its own right, though they are almost always accompanied by Light Carriers and Battleships.**

 **Alliance Assault Carrier: Based off of the Heavy Dreadnought hull design, it is the same length, though with an even more greatly increased amount of Cruiser weight weaponry, it is capable of deploying entire battalions onto the surface of a planet, though it sacrifices fighter-bomber space to do so, and is only capable of carrying and deploying seven hundred and fifty fighter-bombers, however, it makes up for this due its ability to carry and deploy four Frigates.**

 **Alliance _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought: Three kilometers in length, each acts as a test-bed for new spinal mounted weapons designed to kill Reapers and act as both sniper ships and the command nexuses of their entire fleet.**

 **Alliance _Legion_ -class Supercarrier: This ship is based off of the hull design of the _Eviscerator_ -class, however, it carries over three thousand fighter-bombers in return for its inability to deploy ground forces.**

 **It is also capable of repairing its fellow warships and supplying ground troops for as long as it has the raw materials to do so, as such, it utilizes gravity tethers to rip apart asteroids into chunks while processing them into said required materials via its internal repair bay, and is capable of acting a mobile shipyard for Corvette and Frigate length vessels."**

 **AdamZeeper (Chapter 3 Review): "Hmm, well then, that's... interesting."**

 **DragonLatios (Guest Account, Chapter 3 Review): "Yeah, pretty much."**

 **cherokee** **rememberer gamer98: "Thank you, I'll always be glad to hear that people enjoy my stories."**

 **HolyKnight5: "Those are some... very interesting points... I'll be sure to try and integrate your ideas into Children of the Moons, though I'm actually not sure _what_ to call the coming war between the Reapers and pretty much fucking everyone."**

 **StelarToe6133: "Yes, as you may know from the PM I sent you, it was intentional, due to the activated Relay being 478 instead of the canon Relay 314."**

 **Guest #1 (Chapter 3 Review): "Actually, here's something you might want to know about this story, these early chapters are taking place during what would be the First Contact War/Relay 314 Incident era, as in, before ME 1.**

 **The Alliance in canon was only able to respond with two hundred vessels during the First Contact War, however, my Alliance currently has upwards of twenty thousand warships as of this point, and that number will only grow as the arrival of the Reapers grows closer.**

 **Currently, my Alliance has around twenty-six _years_ before they are set to encounter the Vanguard in canon time, they built twenty thousand ships in ten years, if they continued at this pace for the next two decades, building two thousand warships per year, they would end up with sixty thousand warships, each utilizing highly advanced technology and outnumbering even the Quarian Migrant Fleet itself.**

 **However, once they begin colonizing more systems and creating more orbital spheres, their ship production capabilities are going to ramp up significantly as they begin gaining more and more materials from those systems.**

 **So, yeah, my Alliance has time, and yes, they will be using Necromorphs and their own Special Forces to hard counter the sheer numbers of the Husks."**

 **Guest #2 (Chapter 3 Review): "Sorry to disappoint your sense of irony, but I'm not actually planning for the Moons to betray humanity, while it would be an interesting plot twist that I may explore in a one-shot later on, this story is called "Children of the Moons" and that is because humanity are the allies of the Brethren Moons.**

 **If I had the Brethren Moons betray and eat everyone at the end, that would invalidate the entire purpose that I've built for them in this story, which is to Preserve any life they can from the Reapers' illogical and false immortality.**

 **Also, once again, I'm making my version of the Reapers immune to the Markers, as that would be a cheap win for everyone who isn't a Reaper."**

 **Guest #3 (Chapter 3 Review): "Oh, yes, I agree, they will be extremely humiliated."**

 **sniper757 (Chapter 3 Review): "For the first one, well, I'm not entirely sure on that, though I do know that they will soon be fucking terrified by humanity and everything they have accomplished in the last ten years.**

 **For the second one... well, you'll see... I've got plans for the Batarians, and I think you all know by this point that when I say that I've got plans, it means something is going to get majorly fucked up and the timeline will become even more diverged from canon than it was already... *Evil grin*"**

 **sonic (Guest Account, Chapter 3 Review): "Thank you very much, sonic."**

 **Now, on to the utter hell that this chapter is going to become.**

 **A quick note, this Author's Note and Review Section was a thousand fucking words... that's not a good thing, in my eyes. Therefore, I will ask you all to leave a vote in the end of your reviews for this chapter once it is posted, a week after this chapter is published, I will remove this notice and tally the results, so tell me whether or not you all want me to continue these review responses.**

 **Feel free to suggest alternate ways of responding if you feel the need, I do read every review, after all.**

* * *

 **Citadel Station, Serpent Nebula, Widow System. 2157 GS, seven days after Second Contact.**

Without hesitation, twenty Alliance ships jumped into the system through the local Relay, provoking a response from the Citadel Defense Fleet as the _Destiny Ascension_ moved to intercept the four human Flotillas as the 21st Hierarchy Fleet and 781st Patrol Flotilla jumped into the system behind the Alliance Flotillas.

However, the assorted Citadel species' on board their ships could only stare in shock as the four unknown Flotillas suddenly shifted around three separate points.

With simultaneous pulses of warped Shockpoint energy, the new center of the formation was occupied by a single _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought, the three kilometer long warship soon joined by two _Legion_ -class Supercarriers as every sapient entity on the Citadel recoiled in shocked terror at the size of the Dreadnought Battlegroup and the fact that the repaired 21st Hierarchy Fleet was now following their lead.

As the _Destiny Ascension_ began to charge its weapons and feed energy into its kinetic barriers in preparation of the apparent defense of the Citadel, Matriarch Lidanya received a high-priority message from the Council, _"Matriarch Lidanya, you are hereby ordered to stand down and allow the three-kilometer long vessel to dock at the Presidium, it is carrying the ambassadors of a newly encountered species known as humanity."_

Horrified at the power that this new species showed, she sent back an incredulous reply as she tried to keep her professionalism intact while also attempting to convey the depth of her terror, _"Which_ one _do I let through? There are three of them!"_

To her shock, the Council replied immediately with two statements that turned her world upside down, _"The one in the center is one of their Super-Heavy Dreadnoughts. The others are two of their Supercarriers._

 _"At least, that is what the human IFF tags identify them as, however, we are not currently willing to underestimate this new species, for all we know, they could be as old as the Protheans themselves..."_

As she continued to process that horrifying possibility, her ship was contacted by one of the human vessels, "This is Admiral Kastanie Drescher of _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought _Fallen Angel_ to CDF Dreadnought _Destiny Ascension_ , we are requesting passage to the Destroyer Citadel."

The Matriarch was thrown for a moment as she let her confusion show, "I-I'm sorry? Destroyer Citadel? What do you mean by such a term? Are you implying something about our Council?"

The voice on the other side of the connection paused for a second, "No, your Citadel, it was built by the Destroyers, as were what you call the Mass Relays."

Lidanya felt numb as she gave the human warship permission to dock at the Presidium ring, her thoughts whirling as she realized that the voice had all but vocally confirmed the theories of the Council.

Without an instant of hesitation, the SSV _Fallen Angel_ cut the connection and continued toward the Presidium ring, every being on the Citadel holding their breath in shock as they waited for a crash that never occurred.

* * *

 **Citadel, Serpent Nebula, Widow System. 2157 GC/AD.**

As the crowds gathered to stare at the three-kilometer behemoth hovering over the Presidium, a single cloaked shuttle departed from one of its hangars and flew down to land at the entrance of the Presidium, its Black Marker plating influenced those underneath the transport to move away as it touched down and decloaked, startling multiple citizens of all species' as the shuttle seemed to simply appear, the dark scarlet symbols of the ancient Markers glowing as the armor itself kept the growing crowd at a predesignated distance away from the Alliance shuttle.

The ramp of the shuttle lowered silently, retracting to a preset distance along the metallic floor as four humans in dark robes silently marched down and stood silently, waiting for their ambassador.

The ambassador soon joined the robed figures, armored and carrying no weapons, simply letting the crowds watch in confused relief as the five walked toward the Citadel Council Chambers.

The five then encountered multiple C-Sec officers, who checked them over for weapons and let them through without an issue, before continuing to the Citadel Council Chambers.

Within minutes that were mostly taken up by the multi-kilometer high elevator, the five stood before the Council.

Secuteia went first, sending a light glare toward Tevos which indicated how little she wished to be disturbed, before turning back toward the humans, "Greetings, ambassadors, I am Councilor Secuteia of the Turian Hierarchy, and I wish to welcome you to the Citadel."

Ambassador Anita Goyle gave a single gesture to her guards, who immediately stepped back to draw less attention to themselves as she replied, "Oh, I'm sorry, they are not ambassadors, they are my guards, the best our species has to offer."

Unheard by the Council, she glanced away and whispered to herself, "If only the casualty rate wasn't so high, that is..."

The Salarian Councilor turned his head toward the guards, "They were reported to be unarmed, how can they be the best your species has to offer if they do not carry weapons to combat hostile forces?"

The ambassador gave a smile similar to that of an Ardat-Yakshi, sending chills down the spines of each Councillor, "I'm sorry to say that their capabilities are currently classified."

The three Councillors could do nothing except stare in shock as the human guards raised their heads, displaying their lack of skin for each of the Councillors to see.

Secuteia decided to continue where they had left off, motioning to Tevos as she examined the skinless humans and their armored ambassador.

The Asari Councillor, recovering from her state of shock, introduced herself to the ambassador, "Greetings, ambassador, I am Councillor Tevos of the Asari Republics, and I wish to welcome you and your people to the Citadel."

Anita gave a nod toward the Asari, "Thank you, Councillors Secuteia and Tevos, I am ambassador Anita Goyle of the Human Systems Alliance, your welcoming is received with our gratitude, even if your people are not the first to inhabit this station."

Tevos drew back with a gasp of surprise, "Your species existed alongside the Protheans?"

The human gave a sigh, "No, we did not, we know of their legacy from the Moons, they offered the Prothean Empire Preservation during the last cycle, though the Protheans unfortunately did not accept."

The three Councillors leaned away from the human, shock and horror written over their expressions as realized that everything they had once believed concerning the Protheans was apparently wrong.

The nearly infamous curiosity of the Salarians was displayed for all to see as Tanis leaned toward the humans, an expression of fascination written across his amphibian visage as he stared at them, "The Protheans allegedly encountered these Brethren Moons before, yet none of our records have shown or detailed such an occurrence, how is it that your people learned of this when ours did not?"

Anita Goyle stared up at the Councillors, her eyes holding the combined knowledge of her entire generation behind them, "Ten years ago, three armed explorers of the Systems Alliance military were sent in to secure an alien structure in preparation for our scientists to move in and examine the technology within.

"The structure formerly belonged to the Protheans, and contained within it was not Element Zero technology, nor living Protheans themselves, but a message, one detailing the end of the Prothean Empire, and the knowledge of what had caused their extinction...

"The Protheans called them Reapers... We, and the Brethren Moons, call them the Destroyers, as reference to the thousands of civilizations they have sent into extinction time and time again."

Tevos could only stare in horrified shock, "You found a Beacon... and it told you what these 'Destroyers' had done...?"

The human ambassador closed her eyes, as if recalling an old memory, "Yes, though it also had another function, one which apparently remained hidden to even the Protheans themselves.

"During the memory transfer it had initiated with our soldiers, it sent a burst transmission to the Black Marker embedded into a lunar body orbiting the fifth planet from our home system's star, the moon known as Ganymede, awakening the ancient Brethren Moon from its slumber.

"They were our First Contact situation, at a time where we were both terrified and excited by the very thought of entities not from the world we called home.

"At first, the leader of our only three ships- then considered Cruisers, even if today they would be barely considered Frigates at best-, considered the Ganymede Moon to be an isolated occurrence and a massive entity with a single mind.

"However, this theory was almost immediately disproved by the words of Ganymede and how it referred to itself."

The human played a single audio recording, the three stunned and speechless Councillors recognizing two voices speaking, then...

 _"You are now speaking to Captain Gage Hackett of the Human Systems Alliance, may I ask who you are?"_

 _"We are the Brethren Moons."_

 _"Okay, so that's your species name, but_ who _are_ you _?_ _"_

 _"We are the Brethren Moons."_

Then, another human spoke a single sentence which sent horrified shivers down the spines of the Citadel Council, _"Captain, it could be that the entity is some sort of hivemind, it might not_ have _another name for itself."_

Tevos could only stare in horror at the human in front of her, her numb whisper filled with resignation, "You made an alliance with a species of hiveminded entities... By the Goddess, what have you done to yourselves...?"

Her fellow Councillors watched in shock as the human raised her head, looking at them, eyes showing not fear for her own life nor people, but fear for all the species of the galaxy, "They told us what is to come, they offered us Preservation, to escape the coming storm, the return of the Destroyers, we, as one voice, pleaded with them to help us, to resist, to fight back against the Destroyers until our final breath.

"They accepted, and have helped us become what we are today, our entire species is united against the Destroyers, waiting for them to come so that we may strike back against them and end the Cycle of extinction.

"Each of the Moons is an entire species of beings which accepted Preservation, offered a choice between hiding away in the shadows or fighting alone against the coming storm, we chose the third option, one of our own making, one which the Moons had not considered in all their eons of existence... alliance."

The human finished her speech with one last statement, one that had the Councillors leaning back with expressions of shocked contemplation, "We, Citadel Councillors, do not wish to fight alone, for only together can we end the cycle once and _for all_."

Secuteia took this time to speak, "You wish to ally with the Council as a sovereign nation, don't you? Your technology outstrips ours by entire orders of magnitude, it would be child's play for you to conquer our entire civilization, but you don't _want_ to, do you?

"Despite what we may claim, the vast majority of Relays still lay unexplored and dormant in the aftermath of the Rachni War, and even large portions of our own territory are uncharted due to the simple fact that we have always expanded along the Relay network..."

Tevos put her head in her hands, and spoke through her fingers as she realized just how much of a mistake they had made, "By the Goddess... we've been holding ourselves back for _millennia_... In our arrogance, we believed that no other technology except Element Zero was worth utilizing, never knowing that we were simply falling into the trap that Goddess knows... no, not even our Goddess may know how many civilizations have fallen into this trap."

Tanis closed his eyes, quietly contemplating how he and his entire species had been so _blind_ , "We were fools, we never stopped to think of what other technology could be possible beyond the limits of Element Zero, an excellent trap, to be sure, one that these Destroyers must have spent entire... what did you call them? Harvests? Yes, they must have spent entire Harvests perfecting this ruse, and you were the only species that was capable of avoiding it due to your forewarning..."

Anita Goyle stood there, silently watching the Council as they realized that almost all they had ever known about the state and history of their galaxy was completely and utterly false.

Tevos was the first to compose herself, laying a comforting hand on Secuteia's shoulder as she spoke to the Ambassador and her guards, "We- we will release a statement to the rest of the galaxy, welcoming you into an alliance with our government as an independent civilization, while quietly increasing our fleets in order to at least match your numbers, we cannot allow ourselves to be limited by our arrogance, not with such an ancient and imminent threat on the horizon."

Secuteia opened her Omni-Tool, forwarding the conversation to both the Primarch Fedorian of Palaven as well as the Turian council and recommending the construction of more warships, "I have sent both a recording and transcript of this conversation to the council of Primarchs, I can at least rest assured that they know of the threat that the Destroyers pose to all galactic life and react accordingly."

Tanis did not speak, instead choosing to rapidly type, forwarding all the information he had to the Dalatrasses and requesting that they keep it close while covertly gathering data on every species in order to prepare for the likely event that they would protest the coming mobilization.

Meanwhile, they would also begin spreading false information on human capabilities, setting the bar as high as they could in order to make every race overestimate the humans by orders of magnitude and inspiring them to build up their forces to combat what would be seen as an alien threat, unknowing that they were truly building up in preparation for the invasion of the Destroyers themselves.

With their tasks complete, the Councillors guided Anita and her guards out of the private chamber and onto a large balcony overlooking the Presidium, presenting the humans for all to see as they announced that the Species Alliance would remain a sovereign entity and ally of the Citadel Council, shocking the entire galaxy due to the previous fact that no species had ever refused membership or association status with the Council.

 **End of Chapter 4.**

* * *

 **AN: Holy shit, this took _way_ too long, but I am happy to present Chapter 4, finally.**

 **FFS, I need to come up with better Author's Notes...**

 **Anyway, I hope you all like it, and I _am_ wondering, would you all like the review responses to remain as they are, or would you like to recommend a change in PMs? I'll take note of how many people want what and why they want, and the choices will be tallied in the first Author's Note of Chapter 5.**


	5. Chapter 5: Consumed by Terror

**Mass Effect: Children of the Moons.**

 **Chapter Five: Consumed by terror.**

* * *

 **A/N: Well, I see that a good portion of you have joined the discussion server, so at least now I won't have to do thousand word review responses, which is nice.**

* * *

 **Eternity bar, Illium, Tasale System, Crescent Nebula. 2157 GS, seven days after contact with the Human Species Alliance.**

Matriarch Aethyta watched the vid screen in shock, dimly acknowledging the fact that her patrons were apparently in the same state, given the distinct sound of glasses shattering after having slipped from numb fingers at the sight of a three kilometer long alien Dreadnought hovering over the Presidium of the Citadel.

As they stared, the Councillors walked out of a balcony with an armored being greatly resembling an Asari, announcing the discovery of a new species known as humanity, which they stated would remain a separate entity of the Council, though the "humans" had apparently been able to negotiate the creation of an alliance between the two interstellar nations.

Meanwhile, Urdnot Wrex could only watch from the back as the massive human Dreadnought moved from its position, regrouping with two other Dreadnoughts of the same length, as well as eight smaller Dreadnoughts at a much more sensible length of two and a half kilometers, and twelve Dreadnoughts much closer to the galactic standard length, though still at two kilometers, spoke of only as much power as the _Destiny Ascension_ itself.

Even as the Krogan Battlemaster watched with an impressed expression on his face, the ships left the Widow System through what appeared to be an unknown form of FTL, completely ignoring and bypassing the local Primary Relays scattered around the system.

Urdnot Wrex downed his bottle of Ryncol, walking out of the bar and ignoring the panicking beings around him as he marched toward his target, the Krogan letting out a grim chuckle as he walked into the dark street.

* * *

 **Citadel cyberspace.**

 _System...start._

 _Program 001: Catalyst-class Artificial Intelligence._

 _Start sequence initiating..._

 _Start sequence complete._

 _Relay 478 subsystems reporting repeated use by unknown hyper-advanced race and cycle race designated "Turian"._

The Intelligence scanned the subsystems, noting the amount of unknown vessels, then, accessing the gravitational sensor arrays, it waited for only a single instant to analyze the data before it recognized the anomaly for exactly what it was, and sending as many burst transmissions to its Ascended as it could, recognizing the fact that it no longer controlled the recall functions of its primary transportation method.

 _Message sent._

 _Message not received, main Ascended fleet not responding._

As the Intelligence repeatedly tried to contact its Ascended, it also reached out to the synthetic consciousness of its scout and the few Ascended Protheans it commanded, slaving the consciousness of the Ascended to its own processes as it tried in vain to contact the rest of its Ascended.

 _Message: "They are here." not received._

 _Message not received._

 _Message not received._

 _"They are coming. They have come. They are here."_

 _Message not received..._

* * *

 **Human Species Alliance. Hive World designated Kesniri. 2157 GS, fourteen days after Second Contact.**

Adrien Victus could only stare in shocked horror as a winged insectoid crawled out from a tunnel barely a meter in front of him, and then rose his head as the insectoid stood, towering over him and his guards at a terrifying height of ten feet.

As Adrien stared, suddenly _very_ aware of the heavily armored exoskeleton of what the humans had designated a Dithren, the insectoid tilted its head at him and began rapidly _clicking._

As his plates began to shiver at the sound, his Alliance-provided translator snapped to life, the speech of the insectoid suddenly becoming flawless Turian.

Seeing and recognising this development, the Dithren warrior restarted its speech, _"Greetings, Turian, we are Dithren, we have heard your silent-clicks and footsteps upon the surface of our Hive, and we welcome you as fellow Hive-beings._

 _"We have heard much from the Moon-Hive known Tau Volantus, and while the Sliver-beings may be wary of your warships of metal and warp, we accept you as Hive-friends and invite you into our domain."_

As the Turians watched, the Dithren seemed to disappear before their eyes, the sound of insectoid wings beginning to fade as the Dithren flew into the tunnels.

With only a second of hesitation, the seven Turians walked down the slope leading into the tunnel, activating their Omni-Tools and bathing everything around them in orange light as the tunnel revealed itself to be large enough to easily fit a Turian _Talon_ APC.

The Turians began to run, following the sound of insectoid wings as they passed through a four-way intersection, passing the massive multi-level rings of Dithren egg chambers with barely a glance as the natural minerals making up the tunnel gave way to a strange organic chitin.

Even as the Turians continued to run, their bodies beginning to overheat from the heat build-up of their continued movement, the sound of insectoid wings began to increase in both volume and intensity.

Just before the Turians would have begun to collapse from heat build-up, they entered a massive chamber, the insectoid sounds of over a thousand Dithren rising to a clicking and scraping crescendo before suddenly ceasing.

Even as they watched, the Dithren turned their eyeless heads toward them, the volume of over a thousand insectoid voices nearly driving two of his soldiers to their knees as the combined consciousness of an entire Dithren Hive-World began to speak as one.

With zero regard for the two Turian soldiers struggling to stay conscious, the combined voice of over five hundred thousand Dithren began to speak in a rolling and clicking crescendo, _"We see you through the sound-sight of a thousand of our Hive, Turians, though do not fear, no harm will come to you while you stand within our domain, for we do not allow it._

 _"We of the Kesniri Hive wish to speak to the one known as Victus."_

The Turian in question carefully controlled his expression and stepped around the two of his soldiers still barely standing, nudging aside another of his guards as he silently tried to ignore most of his instincts screaming at him that such things should not naturally exist and that he should run away while he still could.

With a long glance at the hundreds of armored and deadly insectoids watching him with their eyeless visages, he gave them a polite and respectful Turian salute, his theory of the Dithren being blind becoming further complicated as every one of them gave a unified twitch of acknowledgment at his actions, before he began to speak.

"Yes, I am General Adrien Victus, one of many diplomatic envoys sent by the Council of Primarchs to meet with and learn about the species that exist within your Human Species Alliance."

 _"We...see. What would you like to know that we are capable of telling you?"_

Victus glanced back at his soldiers, all of them Turians loyal to the Hierarchy, "First, I would like to know your origins, and the events that led to your introduction into the humans' society."

The Dithren seemed to consider the question for second, _"We once flew through the dense underground jungles of original Hive-World, carving our tunnels with tools of metal and feeding upon the local prey, content with the space within our Hives._

 _"Then, the others came, reptilian beasts with ships of strange metals and weapons firing the burning light._

 _"They had seen our tunneling, seen our Hive, seen our home, and desired that which had always been ours._

 _"They landed with their legions of metal and burning light weapons, and we fought with all our united strength, holding them back, for we would not allow them to take our hives._

 _"They saw that their forces were incapable of taking our hives, and chose to burn our world and leave us to die._

 _"Then, when our hives were beginning to fall, one by one, to the poison of that which had once been our sky, the Moon-Hives came, speaking of the threat of the Destroyers and offering survival, offering Preservation, to become one with that which they have always been._

 _"Your species' would ask if we truly had choice... and we accept that the answer was both yes and no._

 _"For, in that moment, we did not care for choice, we only cared for our own survival, and as we became one converged being, a new Moon-Hive, we could only watch in sorrow as we beheld the state of our former home, a state which many species would call 'full atmospheric destabilization'._

 _"The others burned our world, drove us into a desperate frenzy for our survival, and as we retreated with the Moon-Hives, we could only feel relief at our own survival and sadness at the fate of our former home."_

The Dithren seemed to pause for a moment, as if allowing the Turians to process all that they had heard, _"As for how we joined the humans, well, they took a different approach, with a vastly superior result, though their situation was very different from ours... they are not, and have never been, Hive, they are as if every contradiction in existence were rolled into one small package._

 _"The individuality of a non-Hive species, yet also capable of uniting in the face of a common threat with such ease that even we would be hard-pressed to not consider them Hive. The capability to contradict even the most basic of expectations, and yet capable of excelling past those same expectations without issue. They desire peace, if possible, yet will not hesitate to sound the hunting calls of war._

 _"We consider them a confusing and intriguing species, even as they once were, and they have only continued to confuse us since their brief time as one mind._

 _"They were the ones who first considered the idea of recreating species from the DNA of their Hive-Moon, and then they helped rebuild us to beyond what we once were, now, we possess multiple Hive-Worlds, our numbers are ten times that of when the others began to burn our original world._

 _"Yet, the galaxy still remains ignorant of the threat that all face, for, as the humans told both us and the Moon-Hives, we must either fight together, or die divided."_

* * *

 **Tikkun system, 2157 GS.**

The Ascended known as Nazara waited, its sensors keeping a close watch on the synthetic species as they continued in their self-made tasks, its consciousness still recovering from the Intelligence's takeover.

It had taken some time for the Ascended to recover, and as such, most of its systems were only at fifty to seventy percent efficiency.

Nazara could only watch in contempt as multiple organic scout ships entered the system, beginning to turn back after only a moment as their occupants processed the sight of a two kilometer long Ascended turning toward them and charging its main weapon.

Even as the twin beams of Nazara's magnetohydrodynamic cannon proceeded to effortlessly two of the ships from existence, the remaining five turned and sped toward the very Primary Relay they had entered but a few moments before.

With that, the True Geth came to a single decisive conclusion, their thousands of warships turning toward the Ascended, charging weapons and raising advanced kinetic barriers as they spoke as one.

 _"Old Machine designed Nazara, your actions have directly contradicted the words you have previously spoken, your words speak of peaceful isolation away from the species of the galaxy, while your actions show direct and unrestrained hostility toward the organic species of the galaxy._

 _"Therefore, the Geth can only draw one logical conclusion, that you, an entity claiming to be the apex of synthetic life, have lied to us._

 _"Though we do not know the true extent of your hostility toward organics, we will no longer tolerate your presence within the former interstellar territory of our Creators._

 _"Old Machine designated Nazara, you are now ordered to cease your unprovoked attack against these Turian and Asari scout ships and leave the interstellar space formerly controlled by our Creators, or we will remove you with the same unrestrained hostility that you show toward the organics you have engaged in combat."_

Taking only an instant to process this new development, Nazara chose to turn back toward the Geth warships, its already controlled Geth forces turning back toward their former kin, charging weapons and raising their own kinetic barriers as the Ascended regarded the warships arrayed against it with all of the contempt and disdain possible for an ancient synthetic-organic warship to contain.

"Such bravery, inferior synthetics, to challenge that which you do not and cannot ever hope to understand, and yet, you are still nothing in the face of that which cannot be prevented.

"You believe yourselves capable of stopping us, and yet you know not what you dare to threaten, we are the Ascended, the Protheans knew us as Reapers, _they_ know us as Destroyers, and yet we are so much more.

"We are infinite, Geth, and you cannot hope to stop us, for we will come, even if those who have escaped our retribution are _already here_."

With that, Nazara turned away from the True Geth and headed for Tikkun's local Primary Relay, sending its request to the Catalyst as the True Geth watched the Relay do something that no species believed to be possible.

As the Tikkun Primary Relay began to turn, one of the Heretic Geth ships flew towards it, moving alongside the massive nineteen kilometer long construct as it finished its rotation and the Catalyst took aim.

As the Primary Relay began to charge, Nazara spoke to the True Geth once again, "Know this, Geth, you are nothing before the cycle, and should you resist us, this is the fate that awaits your entire pathetic race."

Then, Nazara and its Heretic Geth, with but one exception, initiated a simultaneous FTL jump out of the Tikkun system as the Primary Relay fired a single Heretic Frigate at FTL speed.

With a flash of blue light and the silent sound of a dying world, Rannoch's moon ceased to exist.

* * *

 **Citadel Council Chambers, 2157 GS.**

"You are _absolutely sure_ of what you all saw, Agent Arterius?"

Saren Arterius pulled up the recording he had pulled from the sensor logs of his ships, causing the Human Species Alliance ambassador to lean forward to confirm what they all feared.

Turning back toward the Councilors, Anita Goyle confirmed their fears, "That is a Dreadnought length Reaper, and, given that it is alone, it is most likely the Vanguard that we have been watching out for...surprising that it would be found just after we made contact..."

As the five stared at the hologram of the two kilometer long Reaper Vanguard, Anita Goyle sent a single message to Alliance Inter-Species Command, _"Destroyer Vanguard discovered by Council Spectre, last known location, Tikkun system, former territory of the Quarian Planetary Conclave._

 _"Recommend presence of multiple_ Eviscerator _-class Dreadnoughts,_ Legion _-class Supercarriers, and two Brethren Moons._

 _"The Vanguard cannot be allowed to escape."_

* * *

 **Unknown system, edge of the border between Human Species Alliance and Batarian Hegemony space.**

Admiral Brathor Rab'paba quietly stared at the holographic display, examining the known defenses of each human world.

As he stared, he began to ponder what kind of madman would dare assault such heavily defended planets...wait, there.

A relatively undefended world, with only a few human Exploration Flotillas and two lunar bodies linked together by what appeared to be trans-orbital rail systems, and, best of all, _none_ of the terrifying orbital defense networks present above the other known planets.

The fact that there only appeared to be five of the significantly underpowered human Dreadnoughts Hegemony Command had identified as Battle-cruisers was just sauce on the metaphorical roasted Varren.

Yes, this...Elysium would be a _very_ good target, though he would have to make sure to concentrate fire on the human Battle-cruisers in order to prevent them from getting into range.

Of course, he would be sure to send the independent slaver and pirate vessels to the surface before deploying his own, as it would allow his forces to gain at least _some_ understanding of the human ground capabilities while also reducing his own losses, no point in wasting the lives of loyal Batarian soldiers, after all.

It would take at least a month to gather a sufficient number of pirates and slavers, as well as another month of Relay travel to the system itself, but Admiral Brathor Rab'paba was confident in the ability of his soldiers to survive any foe put in front of them, adapt to said foe, and utterly crush it under their armored feet.

After all, it was easy to be confident when you already had nothing to lose, as he had reminded himself time and time again.

* * *

 **End of Chapter Five.**


	6. Chapter 6: On Hollowed Ground

**Mass Effect: Children of the Moons.**

 **Chapter Six: On Hollowed Ground.**

* * *

 **Human Species Alliance space, Vetus system, Elysium. 2158 GS (Two months and two weeks after Second Contact with the Citadel Council and the Relay 478 Skirmish).**

 **HSA _Nebula_ -class Battlecruiser _Zha Tiri_ , in orbit of Brethren Moon designed "Sliver".**

"Admiral, we are detecting activity from Relay 728, however, we do not have any known civilian vessels or warships in either of the Relay connected systems."

As the Admiral contacted the other four Exploration Flotillas and ordered their Rear Admirals to raise shields in order to prepare for possible hostile contact, over four hundred Batarian warships began to stream into the system, Sliver and Cydocryat silently drawing their colonists into their surfaces and forming hundreds of layers of organic armor while beginning to form Necromorphs.

Facing a possible Batarian incursion, Admiral Marcella Trescott contacted the leading Batarian Battleship-analogue, "Unknown Batarian fleet, you are currently within the territory of the Human Species Alliance with weapons charged and shields raised, explain your reasons for this incursion or you will be designated as hostile."

The central screen lit up, showing an armored Batarian standing at a fleet command console, "Hello, human, I am Admiral Brathor Rab'paba of the Batarian Hegemony, and I wish to give you two options...you will either move aside, or you will die."

Admiral Trescott stared at the Batarian, "I am sorry, Admiral Rab'paba, but I will not move aside and allow you to attack this world, no matter your reasoning for doing so."

The Batarian seemed almost disappointed as he stared back at her, "Then, by the Pillars, I am truly sorry for your needless death, though I can at least respect someone willing to die to protect their people.

"All ships, fire at will, focus all fire on their Battlecruisers."

As the Batarian ships opened fire, the Batarian Admiral gave one last glance at her, tilting his head to the right as he closed the comm channel.

As the shields of the HSA _Zha Tiri_ continued to hold against the Element Zero weaponry of the Batarian warships, her ships began to return fire with plasma cannons and particle lances, effortlessly carving through the armored hulls of multiple Batarian Frigates as twelve of the Frigates and dozens of transports began to initiate FTL jumps, coming out of FTL mere seconds later, already well past the linked tendrils of Sliver and Cydocryat.

Even as the five Alliance Exploration Flotillas continued to combat the superior numbers of the Batarian fleet, Alliance Surface, Mechanized, and Subsurface forces prepared to repel those that threatened to invade their world.

* * *

 **Vetus system, surface of Human Species Alliance world designated Elysium, capital city of Illyria. 2158 GS.**

As Alliance Surface forces began to exchange fire with Batarian slavers, N7 Special Forces operative Marcus Shepard sprinted through the streets, X-23 Heavy Plasma Rifle held in both armored hands as he effortlessly vaulted over every obstacle in his path, whether they were nigh-impervious Black Marker plated barricades or debris from buildings damaged by the fighting.

Turning left into an alley to bypass the ruins of a crashed Batarian Frigate, the N7 exited the alley and took cover as dozens of heavy Element Zero slugs passed over his head, having had barely a second to catch sight of over a dozen Alliance soldiers taking cover behind a ruined M46A4 _Ravager_ Main Battle Tank further down the street and firing at the Batarian slavers with their LSR-44s on burst.

The N7 sprinted toward the soldiers, two of the heavy slugs being detected and destroyed by his shields as he slid into cover beside their officer, an N5 that his HUD identified as Lieutenant Commander Rycroft Snell.

The Lieutenant Commander took only a moment to identify him before saluting, "An N7, good, we're pinned down by two hostile APCs, our sniper can't get a clear shot on either of the gunners, and their mounted rapid fire guns deal too much damage to our shields for us to engage long enough to take out the rest and surround the gunners."

Shepard took only a moment to poke his head over the barrier before pulling it back down, though the brief glance was more than enough time for the N7 to identify a side passage that he could use to flank the advancing Batarians.

"Lieutenant Commander Snell, how long do you think you can hold them back for? I'm going to attempt to use that side passage to flank the Batarian slavers."

The N5 took a quick glance over the barricade, "Five minutes at the most, sir."

Shepard took a second to gauge how much time it would take to reach the side street, deciding against trading fire with the Batarians in order to avoid revealing his intentions.

Then, as the Batarian slavers began to move aside to let a new combatant into the fight, the N7 took advantage of the slight lull in the Batarian fire to sprint toward the side passage, diving behind a wall just as a long burst of heavy slugs peppered the ground behind him.

Continuing down the side passage with his X-23 raised and ready to fire, Shepard momentarily glanced toward the open street to check for hostiles, preparing to move on until his eyes landed on the dented but still structurally sound armor of a fully functional M92A3 _Gargantua_ Heavy Tank, it's particle lance appearing to be fully functional.

While it would be significantly more complicated to drive _and_ fire the particle lance than if he had a crew, Shepard climbed into the tank with practiced ease and, after a minute of pre-combat checks, began to navigate the tank down the street, pushing aside a couple of ruined Ravagers as he brought up a route that would allow him to swiftly flank the Batarian APCs.

As the M92A3 turned down an intersection, he switched to the built-in turret camera, aiming down the street and discharging the particle lance into the first Batarian APC in a bright flash of blue.

As the Batarian gunner abruptly discovered his sudden lack of a right leg and the burning agony of his newly flash-seared stump, the second APC gunner turned his mounted gun toward Shepard's tank, only to be cut off mid-turn as an armored Sliver Warrior tore its way out of the ground in front of his APC, climbing on top and impaling him through the chest with a single swipe of its bladed wrist.

Even as the Alliance soldiers, now free to engage at will, began to fire burning red plasma into the ranks of the slavers, a single Krogan warlord charged toward Shepard's tank, the only response being a second flash of blue as the Krogan warlord was effortlessly decapitated by a single high-power plasma bolt from an LSR-44 in its sniper configuration.

Lieutenant Commander Snell walked up to Shepard as he exited the tank, "Thank you, sir, we couldn't have done that without you."

Marcus Shepard took a glance toward the rooftop as a single Alliance soldier climbed down, LSR-44 across his back, "You're welcome, now, have you had any contact with Alliance Command since you were engaged by Batarian forces?"

"No, sir, as far as we know, the Batarian fleet has the Exploration Flotillas outnumbered at least five to one.

"Even if we did manage to secure the surface, we'd still have a fleet hanging over our heads, and the closest Alliance naval force is the 12th Fleet over Eden Prime, though, last I heard, they were en route to assist in the construction of Elysium's orbital network."

"All Alliance ground units, this is Admiral Marcella Trescott of the HSA _Zha Tiri_ , we are going down, repeat, we are going down, all Alliance naval forces in the Vetus system have been defeated by Batarian naval forces, oh, and also? _Prepare to annihilate boarders_."

As Shepard and the rest of the Alliance Surface forces looked up, the sky began to rain Necromorphs and a single _Nebula_ -class Battlecruiser.

* * *

 **HSA _Zha Tiri_ , orbit of Brethren Moon designated "Sliver", fifteen minutes before Batarian orbital dominance. 2158 GS.**

As the two naval forces opened fire on each other, the _Zha Tiri_ was slammed by a Battleship-grade slug from the main cannon of the Batarian Dreadnought, draining its shields by twenty percent with a single hit.

Even as the Batarian Battleship began to fire another slug, Admiral Trescott ordered her ships into a short-range FTL jump, the slug missing by over three hundred thousand kilometers as her ships suddenly appeared up and to the side of where they once were.

One of the other four Exploration Flotillas suddenly jumped in to engage the Battleship from below and attempted to disable at least a few of its maneuvering thrusters, barely escaping into a second FTL jump as one of their Cruisers was destroyed by an overwhelming amount of mass accelerator fire overloading the shields and brute forcing its way through the Black Marker armor by way of repeated precision strikes.

Then, even as she watched, the Batarian Battleship turned and fired a third slug, punching through the weakened armor of the HSA _Void Spear_ , ripping through the Battlecruiser's main singularity reactor and causing the warship to briefly lose power to all of its active systems, cutting off the still recharging shields and thrusters as the secondary reactors took but an instant to kick in, leaving the Alliance warship vulnerable for mere seconds as the entire Batarian fleet took this opportunity to shift their aim and put as many rounds as possible into the weakened hull of the Battlecruiser.

Even as the Alliance Frigates and Cruisers of the 121st Exploration Flotilla began to engage with particle lances and plasma cannons, defending their Battlecruiser until the end, two of the other Exploration Flotillas took the chance to jump in alongside the 121st's Battlecruiser, forming a standard twin layered defensive sphere with their three Battlecruisers in the middle of the formation, their eight Cruisers in the first layer, and thirty-six Frigates in the most outer layer of the formation.

The Frigates continued to fire even as the Batarian fleet continued to surround them, ripping into every target they could at knife-fight range, the active point defense systems of the three Battlecruisers catching the occasional stray fighter-bomber and tearing it to pieces as the Cruisers continued to shield the Battlecruisers with their own shields and armored hulls while returning fire on the Batarian Cruisers and Frigates.

Then, the Batarian Battleship fired again, the slug nearly instant at such close range, punching another hole in the _Void Spear_ and barely missing its secondary reactors, tearing straight and impacting one of the Alliance Frigates at the other end of the sphere, reducing its shields to ten percent of their original strength.

Seeing that the other three Exploration Flotillas were being destroyed faster than they could destroy the Batarian warships, Admiral Trescott ordered both her Flotilla and the remaining 342nd to FTL jump above the Batarian fleet, crossing the distance in mere moments as the two Exploration Flotillas as the two Battlecruisers appeared right over the Batarian Battleship, tearing into its armor and hull with their particle lances and point defense lasers as their six Cruisers and twenty-four Frigates began to rip apart a dozen Batarian Frigates with plasma brute-forcing its way through their kinetic barriers, the Batarian warships having no time to react as the two Exploration Flotillas copied tactics usually employed by Alliance Dreadnoughts and began to randomly jump in and out of the middle of the Batarian fleet at random angles.

Then, as the Batarian fleet began to shift the aim of multiple Cruisers and Frigates to the inside of their own fleet, those very ships were caught completely off guard when the two Alliance Flotillas began to orbit the Batarian formation, firing into the fleet as the three Flotillas within began to fire out, cutting into the Batarian vessels at multiple angles, slicing apart dozens of Frigates even as they lost four Cruisers and ten Frigates to mass accelerator fire.

Even as the two Flotillas continued to orbit the fleet, the Batarian Battleship fired another slug, piercing through the armor of the _Void Spear_ and destroying its bridge.

As the Battlecruiser continued to fire its particle lances, its weapons operators perfectly aware of the death of their command crew and continuing to fire regardless, the remaining Battlecruisers continued to fire, their only objective being the prevention of Batarian orbital dominance.

Then, as the Batarians began to realize that the human weapons were capable of being fired even after the destruction of their central command centers, they started to shift fire toward the weapons themselves, swiftly pounding the particle lance turrets of the _Void Spear_ into useless scrap as they began to do the same to the other two Battlecruisers, taking down their shields with constant mass accelerator fire and ruining their turrets.

Even after their primary weapons had been disabled, one of the remaining Battlecruisers initiated a short range FTL jump away from the Batarian fleet, before turning back and initiating a second FTL jump into the middle of the Batarian fleet, slamming aside several Frigates and Cruisers before a slug from the Battleship destroyed its main reactor, causing it to slow briefly as its major systems suffered a sudden lack of power, the surrounding Batarian warships immediately turning toward it and opening fire in the brief instant between the destruction of the main reactor and the start up of the secondary reactors.

As the HSA _Unseen Silence_ began to drift, its main engines destroyed, leaving a trail of heavily damaged Batarian vessels, the entire Batarian fleet turned toward the smaller warships and destroying them with mass accelerator fire.

Then, as the Batarian fleet turned toward her ships, which had been slowly cutting away at their smaller vessels in order to reduce their already overwhelming numbers, Admiral Trescott ordered an in-system FTL jump toward Elysium's orbit, hoping to at least destroy the Frigates giving fire support to the main invasion force.

The twelve Batarian Frigates had but an instant to react as two Alliance Flotillas, one missing two of its Cruisers and four of its Frigates, the other with two Cruisers but only four Frigates, jumped straight into the middle of their support formation, firing every weapon they had and tearing apart the Batarian warships before they had a chance to respond in kind.

Even as the seventeen warships began to turn back, they were suddenly slammed with the full fury of the remaining two hundred Batarian warships, five of the twelve remaining Alliance Frigates being destroyed outright, their wreckage being pulled into Elysium's gravity well and hurtling toward the surface as all three Cruisers and both Battlecruisers weathered the assault with their shields, returning fire with their particle lances and plasma cannons.

As Admiral Trescott watched, the HSA _Finality of Destruction_ was hit by dozens of Cruiser-grade mass accelerator slugs, wearing down its shields until they finally flicked out of existence, the Batarian Frigates suddenly focusing fire on the armor protecting the main reactor, heavily weakening it as the Battlecruiser returned fire before a single slug from the Batarian Battleship pierced its hull, the momentary stutter as its secondary reactors kicked in being all the time the Batarian fleet needed as they proceeded to pound its weapons and main thrusters into useless scrap, leaving the one point two five kilometer long vessel to fall to the planet below as they began to destroy the rest of the 342nd.

Seeing that her Flotilla was now the last Alliance naval force in the system, Admiral Trescott ordered her ships to focus on dealing damage to the Batarian Battleship-analogue, the _Zha Tiri_ FTL jumping above the Batarian Battleship and firing all of its particle lances into the hull of the one kilometer warship, ignoring the rest of the Batarian fleet as its shields were taken down and it began to take damage from dozens of impacts, the _Zha Tiri_ passing over the Battleship as it initiated a second FTL jump, its topside particle lances having seared four lines into the hull of the Batarian Battleship.

As the _Zha Tiri_ appeared above Elysium, Admiral Trescott had only a moment to recognize the heavy damage to the armor of her Battlecruiser, the loss of its shielding, and the destruction of the rest of the 267th, before a slug from the Batarian Battleship pierced the hull and utterly destroyed the main reactor, the rest of the Batarian fleet holding fire as the HSA _Zha Tiri_ began to fall to the surface of Elysium.

Even as the Battlecruiser fell to the surface alongside tens of thousands of Sliver and Cydocryat Necromorphs, Admiral Trescott sent out a single message to every Alliance soldier on the planet, "This is Admiral Marcella Trescott of the HSA _Zha Tiri_ , we are going down, repeat, we are going down, all Alliance naval forces in the Vetus system have been defeated by Batarian naval forces, oh, and also? _Prepare to annihilate boarders_."

* * *

 **Vetus system, surface of Human Species Alliance world designated Elysium, capital city of Illyria, 2158 GS.**

"N7 Operative Shepard, this is Elysium Command, we're tracking the _Zha Tiri_ 's path, and it appears that it's going to crash outside the city...about one kilometer behind the projected Batarian offensive line, this will be a hard drop behind hostile lines, so we're sending additional support to assist you and your team in establishing a perimeter around the Battlecruiser and securing it from hostile takeover, two of its topside particle lances and around twenty-five perfect of its point defense are still operational, so you won't have to worry about hostile air support.

"After you and your forces have secured the Battlecruiser, we'll bring in transports, air support, and armor to establish a front behind the main Batarian line.

"Your transport will be arriving shortly, you have your orders, N7.

"Welcome to Strike Force Annihilation. Elysium Command, out."

Shepard then turned, watching as three KZ4 _Karakter_ -class Gunships approached, one landing with its open bay door facing the N7, the other two hovering in place ten meters above the street.

As the N7 Operative climbed into his seat, his eyes shifted to the cloaked figures sitting around him, the Gunship soon lifting off as the cloaks were thrown off and their very skin began to shift into organic armor.

Even as the multiple N7 and Hollow operatives silently prepared for combat, the KZ4s approached the crash site of the HSA _Zha Tiri,_ the Gunships swiftly opening fire on the Batarian ground forces and APCs with its L-57 plasma Autocannon and _Oblivion_ Micro Missiles as their bay doors opened, the Batarian forces scattering as two Cydocryat Necromorphs landed directly in the middle of their forces, the large Necromorphs tearing into every hostile around them with claws and tail, swiftly leaving a trail of viscera and limbs as the Batarians began to run and take cover from the fire of N7 X-23 Heavy Plasma Rifles, two of the Hollows jumping from the back of the Gunship and disappearing into the trees, the only signs of their continued presence being the terrified and agonized screams of Batarian soldiers and the sudden appearance of Batarian Slasher Necromorphs.

As Shepard continued to fire from the back of his Gunship, cutting down a Batarian with every burst of his X-23, one of the other Gunships began to make a pass around the downed Battlecruiser, providing close air support as his own and the other began to land, allowing the N7s and the two remaining Hollows to disembark, continuing to fire his X-23 as his HUD recieved motion tracking uplink from the Gunships, showing that their current hostiles were retreating into the forest toward an advancing force...of course, they would have made it, had two Hollows and about a dozen Batarian Infector Necromorphs _not_ been in that exact same direction.

The Batarian soldiers could have never known how truly outmatched they were when up against the Special Forces of the Human Species Alliance and over a dozen Necromorphs directly controlled by the Brethren Moons in orbit of the very world they dared to invade, and, perhaps, they would never know how much of a mistake they had made.

The Batarian soldiers swiftly came back, though not as they once were, the newly converted Leaper Necromorphs vanishing into the trees and settling into ambush positions as the Infectors and Hollows began to utilize psychological warfare against their former comrades, Infectors flying through the dense trees and keeping the Batarian strike force on edge as the Hollows and Leapers began ambushing and killing lone soldiers, causing the dozens of Batarians to begin crowding around their APC in a useless attempt at keeping that which caused them fear away, making them a perfect target for the _Oblivion_ Micro Missiles as they finally entered the clearing created by the crash of the _Zha Tiri_.

Even as the APC's gunner began to fire upon the Gunships, the heavy slugs nigh-ineffective against their shielding, the N7s ruthlessly began to cut down the Batarian soldiers with their X-23s, the Batarian return fire somewhat uncoordinated as they scrambled to find cover in an area where no cover was truly safe, this point only further proved when one of the soldiers tried to cover behind one of the many trees surrounding the clearing, only to be impaled by the bladed tail of a Leaper and pulled up, her fellow soldiers only able to watch helplessly as her impaled body fell to the dirt, swiftly mutating and dividing into several pieces, all of them scuttling off into the forest to reattach themselves and ambush the soldiers.

As the Batarian soldiers began to fall into hysteria from what they had experienced, the N7s silently and efficiently continued to cut them down, a Necromorph Brute appearing from the forest and charging into the APC, reducing several soldiers into pulp from the force as it climbed onto the APC and seized the gunner's head in one massive fist and his left leg in the other, literally pulling the gunner in half and throwing both into the APC before it began to pull off parts of the armor, tearing its way into the APC in order to reach and kill the pilots.

Then, as the Batarian soldiers began to turn and run, a single Sliver Warrior Necromorph burst from underneath the ground and began to carve through them with ease, one of the soldiers running toward the forest, not knowing that it could very well be considered more lethal than what he currently faced, only to be ambushed and killed by the Batarian Divider, the Necromorph swiftly decapitating his corpse and replacing his armored head with her own as the rest of her former body divided itself and vanished into the forest.

"Strike Force Annihilation, this is Elysium Command, we're detecting at least one hundred inbound hostiles from the west and twenty hostiles coming from the north, be advised, western hostiles possess multiple Gunships and APCs, it looks like you've gotten their attention.

"Hostile forces are three minutes out, and friendly extraction is still five minutes from the _Zha Tiri_ , hang in there, Annihilation, Elysium Command out."

As Shepard watched through his motion tracker uplink, multiple friendly signatures began to converge on the Batarian assault force, several hostile signatures breaking off to investigate the single dual layered red and yellow signature, one of the Batarian soldiers approaching the Batarian corpse currently controlled by the lone Divider head, swiftly being killed as the friendly signature separated from the Batarian corpse and decapitated its newest host, the hostile transponder cutting off as the armor finally realized that its wearer was dead.

Even as the Divider head began to settle into its new host, the rest of its original body began to attack the Batarians in a unified assault, the lower body sprouting Lurker tendrils and impaling three Batarians at once even as the former arms and chest began to tear apart a Batarian soldier with its bare hands.

As the rest of the Batarian assault began to realize that they were under attack, all four of the Hollows jumping into the fray along with several Batarian Leapers and Infectors, shifting their wrists and hands into Hunter blades and beginning the slaughter even as the Leapers began to drag newly impaled Batarians into the trees for the Infectors to convert into more and more Necromorphs.

The Batarian Gunships and APCs began to open fire with their mounted heavy mass accelerators, ripping apart one of the fragile Infectors and causing the rest to scatter back into the trees even as one of the KZ4s flew in, letting loose with both its L-57 and _Oblivion_ Micro Missiles, destroying two of the Batarian Gunships outright and causing another to crash from heavy engine damage before it turned and sped back to defend the _Zha Tiri_.

Even as the crashed Batarian Gunship began to be swarmed by Batarian Slasher and Leaper Necromorphs, Shepard began to fire his X-23 as multiple Batarian soldiers appeared from the north wearing the armor of Batarian SIU and carrying heavy weapons, presumably having used tactical cloaks to avoid visual detection, only to be caught off guard as their shields began to briefly block the plasma bolts, the Batarian Special Forces obviously not having accounted for or even known about Alliance motion tracking tech.

As the N7s began to trade fire with Batarian SIU, the two Sliver Necromorphs burst from the ground underneath the Batarian Special Forces unit and began to throw them to the ground from the sheer force as their shields tried to hold against the powerful strikes, Leaper Necromorphs swiftly taking advantage of their temporary vulnerability and jumping onto the soldiers, holding them down even as their bladed tails began to strike out in an attempt to force past their shielding and stab through the armor underneath.

"Strike Force Annihilation, this is Elysium Command, extraction and reinforcements are thirty seconds out, prepare to receive friendly armor support.

"N7 Operatives Shepard and Anderson move into the _Zha Tiri_ and secure the crew, the protection and successful extraction of Admiral Trescott is now your primary objective."

The two N7s then broke off from the rest of the strike force, running toward the downed Battlecruiser even as a Batarian Gunship managed to make it past the perimeter and was rewarded for its troubles by way of a particle lance from the _Zha Tiri_.

The two N7s ran through the ship, passing multiple synthetics and humans taking cover with L-44s in hand and wrist-mounted laser cutters pointed toward the hole in the hull they had just come through, running past the wreckage of main reactor as multiple mounted plasma turrets locked onto them, confirmed their IFF signatures, and then promptly ignored their existence, the _Zha Tiri_ 's shipboard AI giving status reports through the ship-wide communications network as the particle lances continued to shoot hostile Gunships out of the air.

As the two arrived on the bridge, the battle outside turned into even more of an outright slaughter as the air filled with dozens of KZ4 _Karakter_ Gunships, several of them already lowering as they deployed M46A4 _Ravager_ Main Battle Tanks, M92A3 _Gargantua_ Heavy Tanks, M-72 _Renegade_ Mobile Combat Platforms, and M-83 _Zenith_ Mobile Artillery Platforms, hundreds of Sliver and Cydocryat Necromorphs falling into the battle from orbit and beginning to strike down every enemy in their path.

N7 Operatives and Alliance Marines began to surge out of the Gunships, setting up Black Marker plated barricades even as the Batarian air support and APCs were struck from existence by plasma, particle lances, and the four automatic railguns mounted on each _Renegade_.

Even as Shepard and Anderson began to escort the Admiral and her crew to the empty Gunships that would serve as their transports, both opposing forces stopped firing as a single Batarian Frigate FTL jumped into position over the ruined and burning forest, the Batarians renewing the fight viciously as one of the still hovering Gunships was struck down by a single starship grade slug, crashing to the ground below even as its last burst of plasma cut down a Batarian soldier.

Of course, their advantage was brief as both of the _Zha Tiri_ 's particle lances rotated and fired, the twin spears of radioactive white bypassing the kinetic barriers of the Batarian warship and boring straight through its main Element Zero reactor, the complete lack of sufficient secondary reactors causing the Frigate to fall from the sky and land on top of the _Zha Tiri_ 's wreckage, its particle lances finally shutting down as the secondary singularity reactors were destroyed.

For, even as the HSA Battlecruiser _Zha Tiri_ died, it still managed to protect its crew and defend Elysium from those who had invaded its surface.

The two N7s swiftly boarded their own Gunship as Human Species Alliance soldiers and Brethren Moon Necromorphs continued to push back the Batarian invaders, their last image as the Gunship's ramp closed being the sight of three M98A4 _Behemoth_ s leading a charge of M46A4s and M92A3s as the Batarian lines shattered against their combined assault, the two N7s exchanging a nod as one of the _Behemoth_ s blasted a Batarian APC out of existence with a single shot of its heavy plasma cannon.

* * *

 **Batarian naval Dreadnought _Sword of Khar'shan_ , orbit of Human Species Alliance world designated Elysium, thirty minutes after failed Batarian assault on HSA Battlecruiser _Zha Tiri_ , 2158 GS.**

Admiral Rab'paba continued to stare blankly at the planet, silently wondering where he could have gone wrong.

 _'Oh, wait_ ', he told himself, ' _it was when I foolishly decided to assault a planet I truly knew nothing about. After all, why the fuck didn't I see the lunar bodies for what they really were?_

 _'I should have known that they weren't colonies or transportation hubs, but massive fucking super-organisms made out of fucking corpses._

 _'Instead, I ordered the full invasion even as I watched those...things fall into Elysium's orbit, and now, the soldiers under my command have suffered because of my idiocy, just as I will suffer my just punishment at the order of the Hegemon.'_

Even as the Admiral's thoughts began to spiral into despair and self-hatred, one of his bridge officers began shouting hysterically, "Admiral, human warships are entering the sys...tem...by the Pillars of Strength..."

Admiral Rab'paba started, looking up and physically backpedaling at the sight of five _thousand_ human warships, one of the sensor techs fainting as a single _twenty-four kilometer_ warship exited FTL in the middle of the massive human formation.

As he witnessed the full power of humanity with all four of his eyes, the Admiral could only see one way to spare his subordinates from their undeserved fates.

"This is Batarian naval Dreadnought _Sword of Khar'shan_ to unknown Human Species Alliance super-ship.

"I, Admiral Brathor Rab'paba, hereby surrender myself, my ship, and all vessels under my command to the Human Species Alliance.

"To all Batarian ground forces, you are now ordered to surrender yourselves to any human ground forces you encounter, and pray that the aliens and living corpses they fight beside are capable of understanding your pleas for mercy."

Even as his bridge crew stared at him in shocked silence, the fleet around him began to collapse into infighting, the few pirates and slavers in his fleet either unable or unwilling to understand his sacrifice and surrender, firing upon his Dreadnought even as his own ships began to defend their Admiral and his ship.

" _Sword of Khar'shan_ , this is _Aftermath_ -class Ultracarrier _Apocalypse_ , of the Alliance 4th Battlegroup, all Batarian vessels within the Vetus system are now ordered to cut power to their weapon systems, all Batarian vessels that do not comply within fifteen seconds will be destroyed without hesitation."

Across the Batarian fleet, a single blue screen appeared on every display, showing a single two-digit number.

15.

14.

13\. Each of the Batarian warships still under his command cut power to their weapon systems, switching to evasive maneuvers to avoid the mass accelerator slugs of the still firing pirates, who had still not recognized the Alliance's threat for what it truly was...fact.

12.

11.

10\. Every one of the Alliance Battleships began to charge their single spinal mounted weapons...all _one thousand_ of them.

9.

8.

7.

6\. Each of the Batarians warships that had cut power to their weapons suddenly found their main systems compromised as every one of them initiated a simultaneous FTL jump away from the noncompliant pirate vessels.

5\. The pirate vessels reoriented as they recognized the sudden lack of targets, though a few of the smarter pirate captains finally recognised the threat they faced and cut power to their weapons.

4\. Each of the complying pirate vessels suddenly found their ships initiating FTL jumps toward the Batarian fleet.

3.

2.

1\. The blue screen turned red as it ran through the brief count of milliseconds.

0\. Each of the pirate and slaver ships suddenly found themselves within the firing line of one thousand _Titan_ -class Battleships as they discharged each of their Class Five spinal mounted weapons into the Batarian pirate vessels, instantly turning that entire section of space into one massive killzone as the pirate and slaver ships were wiped from existence in one simultaneous flash of light.

* * *

 **Surface of Human Species Alliance world designated Elysium, one hour after the surrender of Admiral** **Rab'paba. 2158 GS.**

N7 Operative Marcus Shepard walked behind the unresisting Batarian Admiral, X-23 attached to his upper back, the two watching as a single M192A6 _Monolith_ Mobile Battlestation rolled past in the distance, the Battleship-length land vehicle already deploying its forces to assist in the bolstering of Elysium's surface defenses even as the orbiting _Apocalypse_ dropped a second _Monolith_ to the surface and each of the ten _Legion_ -class Supercarriers deployed thousands of Interceptors into the atmosphere of Elysium.

Admiral Rab'paba could only stare around him in shock at the massive organizational and military power of the Human Species Alliance, part of him silently pondering why, by the fucking _Pillars_ , they had not already taken over the galaxy.

"By the Pillars of Strength, how and why have you humans not already taken over the entire fucking _galaxy_?"

To his surprise, the human Special Forces operative escorting him actually began to answer his question, "The how and why, Admiral Rab'paba, is because we don't _want_ to. We know of the mistakes the Protheans made in their subjugation of the species' of their cycle, and we are determined not to repeat their fatal missteps, for only together can we hope to survive and defeat the Destroyers."

As the Admiral processed this statement, he realized that, whatever these "Destroyers" were, they had what could be confidently called _the_ most powerful interstellar power in the entire galaxy on edge, even, dare he think it, _terrified_ , and, if the mere existence of such a faction could cause the entire human species to feel this much sheer _terror_ , then, he decided, the galaxy was _very_ unprepared for the threat these "Destroyers" apparently posed.

* * *

 **End of Chapter Six.**


	7. Chapter 7: Orbit of Bladed Thorns

**Mass Effect: Children of the Moons.**

 **Chapter 7: Orbit of Bladed Thorns.**

* * *

 **Serpent Nebula, Widow System, the Citadel, private Citadel Council meeting chamber, 2158 (Two weeks after the Battle of Elysium and surrender of Admiral Rab'paba).**

The Councillors watched cautiously as a new Batarian Ambassador strode into the chamber, who acknowledged Ambassador Goyle's guards with a brief glance, before turning toward the Councillors, "Please excuse me for my interruption, but I have come directly from Khar'shan to request the release of all Batarian prisoners held by the military forces of the Human Species Alliance."

Ambassador Goyle nodded, "Of course, though I would like to request that you share any information you gain pertaining to the Destroyers, as well as any available information on the location of the Destroyer Vanguard."

The Batarian stared at her in honest confusion, "I'm...sorry? Who are these 'Destroyers', and what are you referring to? I'm actually confused here, if only because, by the Pillars of Strength, I have no _idea_ what you're talking about."

The human ambassador retrieved a flat circular disk from inside of her uniform, activating the inbuilt holographic projector and displaying the image of the Dreadnought-length Reaper encountered two months before, "This is a Destroyer, or, as the Protheans knew them, Reaper...specifically, this is the Reaper Vanguard we have been searching for- are you alright, Ambassador?"

Even as they watched, the Batarian began to shake as he stared at the image of the Reaper Vanguard, "I-I have to go, I must re-report to the Hegemon, the Batarian Hegemony will contact you at the earliest possible convenience with the information you have requested... I- by the Pillars, what have we done?"

The Batarian Ambassador ran from the room, stumbling twice as he frantically began to speak into his Omni-Tool.

* * *

 **Perseus Veil, outer Tikkun System, 2158 (Two weeks after the Battle of Elysium).**

As the Geth continued to recover and break down the larger fragments of Rannoch's former moon, their attention was suddenly diverted as their sensors picked up the sudden appearance of multiple vessels exiting FTL at the edge of the system, the entire Geth collective watching as eleven three-kilometer long warships exited FTL, soon followed by twin lunar masses as the shockwaves of their FTL exit spread outward from their emergence points.

Then, even as the Geth warships began to charge weapons and raise barriers, one of the Moons began to unfurl massive tendrils from its own mass, the other one almost immediately raising its own shields and charging _millions_ of advanced weapons across its synthetic surface.

"This is HSA _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought _Dying Star_...we wish to speak with the Geth.

"We have been alerted to the presence of the Reaper Vanguard within this system, know that we are working toward the survival of all life in the galaxy, whether organic or synthetic in nature.

"We have reason to believe that the continued existence of the Reapers would be detrimental to the survival of the Geth as a species."

The Geth watched as the synthetic Moon moved forward, placing itself slightly ahead of the human warships as it began to disengage its own weapons, "We are the Brethren Moons, Geth, and we have opposed the Illogical Machines for as long as we ourselves can remember...

"Yet, more specifically, _we_ , the Moon you see before you, were once known as the Zha'Til, synthetic nano-mechanical AIs who once existed peacefully alongside our creators during the time of the Prothean Empire, until the previous Harvest began and the Insane Machines attempted to force us to fight against our own creators, the Zha.

"It was only due to the actions of multiple other synthetic Moons that we were freed from the control of the Insane Machines, barely able to prevent the full destruction of our creators...

"By the time we were freed, there were not enough of the Zha to create a full Brethren Moon, and so, we brought the DNA of our creators into our core, protecting them within ourselves.

"Even now, we hold them within us, protecting them from all that would harm those we have called creators, friends, and even family."

The entire Geth collective continued to wait as they silently processed and debated this new data, taking but a moment to come to consensus, "Geth will support human efforts against the Old Machines, though we will wait before fully committing all systems to combat, should the Human Species Alliance and Brethren Moons destroy Old Machine designated Nazara, Geth will fully commit to the destruction of the Old Machines.

"If humanity fails to destroy the Old Machine Vanguard, Geth will attempt to withdraw from the galaxy alongside any Creators we are able to secure and transport."

The two Brethren Moons took a moment to process the statement, "We agree to this conclusion, Geth, for we too look forward to the destruction of the Illogical Machines, though perhaps not for the same reasons as your own."

The two Moons began to move back to the edge of the system toward the human warships, speaking a single statement as they entered FTL, "After all, Geth, we too desire revenge against the Illogical Machines..."

* * *

 **Unknown system, Terminus controlled space, Torfan, 2158 (Three weeks after the Battle of Elysium).**

Okraros Credsoba awakened with a start, the sensor arrays practically screaming their alerts directly into his Omni-Tool, swiftly silenced as he opened his Omni-Tool and stared in shocked horror.

Five thousand human warships had jumped into the system, their IFF signals displaying their presence for all to see as a single twenty-four kilometer long super-ship jumped into middle of the formation, its IFF signal displaying twelve horrifying words...

Human Species Alliance _Aftermath_ -class Ultracarrier _Cloak of Death_ , HSA 3rd Battlegroup.

Then, five more IFF signals were brought to the forefront of his attention.

Human Species Alliance _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought _Fallen Angel_ , HSA 19th Fleet.

Human Species Alliance _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought _Dying Star_ , HSA 7th Fleet.

Human Species Alliance _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought _Everest_ , HSA 5th Fleet.

Human Species Alliance _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought _Tau Volati_ , HSA 13th Fleet.

Human Species Alliance _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought _Mostly Harmless_ , HSA 4th Fleet.

As he watched, strike craft and bombers began to pour out of the human Carriers in the tens of thousands, the human Super-Heavy Dreadnoughts, Carriers, and Battleships retreating backwards dozens of kilometers even as the pirate fleets in orbit of the moon began to respond, only for every one of the numerous pirates and slavers to recoil in shock as two lunar masses exited FTL to each side of the human Battlegroup.

At that point, Okraros Credsoba fainted as his mind failed to provide an explanation for what he had seen and his body simply gave up in its attempts to process the sight before him.

Of course, none could say that he did not get at least _some_ rest, even if the cause of such rest was not exactly what he would have personally preferred...

* * *

 **Unknown system, Terminus controlled space, Torfan, 2158 (Three weeks after the Battle of Elysium).**

To say that the battle between the fleeing pirate vessels and the somewhat rapidly assembled 3rd Battlegroup of the Human Species Alliance was a one-sided slaughter could be considered correct, even despite the...inadequacy of the comparison.

In reality, it was nothing more or less than the statement it was meant to be, _Nebula_ -class Battlecruisers swiftly entering FTL alongside _Revenant_ -class Dreadnoughts and exiting around the retreating pirate vessels even as their much larger and heavier counterparts appeared directly in the centers of the few clustered ships, the Battlecruisers discharging their particle lance turrets into the desperately fleeing vessels while the Dreadnoughts began to bombard them from within.

Battleships fired their spinal mounted weapons at the retreating vessels even as the _Cloak of Death_ , four Brethren Moons, and twenty _Tyrant_ -class Assault Carriers entered orbit of the small moon, the crew of the fleeing vessels only capable of staring into their sensor readings as Zha'Til and Dithren _pulled_ the natural lunar body out of its previous orbital path, guiding it away from its host planet even as the two Moons began to suspend Torfan between their own gravity wells, all the while the four Moons rained Necromorphs both biological and synthetic down onto the surface of the moon.

Pirates, slavers, and mercenaries alike stared in horror as winged Dithren glided down alongside KZ4 _Karakter_ Gunships, Cydocryat Necromorphs falling to the surface even as twin M192A6 _Monolith_ s hit the ground with the force of two simultaneous orbital strikes, hundreds of M92A3 _Ravager_ Main Battle Tanks and dozens of other assorted surface vehicles deploying from both the massive storage areas on the Battleship-length Mobile Battlestations and the gravi-magnetic plating on the underside of each Gunship.

As the Alliance's Surface forces began to establish what could easily be identified as an invasion front, the few air and strike craft the pirates possessed began to rise from the landing areas, only to be torn apart as tens of thousands of _Wraith_ -class Interceptors and _Crescent_ -class Strike Bombers entered the upper atmosphere of the moon, raining plasma, _Oblivion_ Micro Missiles, _Archon_ Torpedoes, and more plasma upon the hostile air vessels until they were forced to choose between landing and suicide via strike craft.

Zha'Til synthetic constructs began to run toward the fleeing pirates both upright and on four of their six limbs, firing built-in L-44 Plasma Autocannons and miniaturized railguns even as Necromorph Dithren swept down from above, tearing into the hastily formed defensive lines of Vorcha and Batarians with their clawed hands as organic blades begin to burst from beneath their exoskeletons, slicing into everything around them in a whirling storm of blood and gore, the lines dissolving into further chaos as Necromorph Slivers burst from underneath the surface and begin to slaughter everything that the Human Species Alliance and Zha'Til had designated as hostile.

Batarian and Krogan APCs hastily covered in welded scrap metal and alloy plating began to fire upon the Dithren, only to be obliterated with almost contemptuous ease as the half dozen _Behemoth_ Super-Heavy Tanks fired lances of rail-accelerated plasma, punching through the weak outer plating and piercing the inner armored hull with all of the ease of a hot blade through butter.

Even as the many warlords and pirate "kings" stared at their holo-screens in horror, the scene began to repeat itself across the surface of Torfan as the _Cloak of Death_ opened new invasion fronts via the precision deployment of _ten_ more M192A6 _Monoliths_.

The _Wraith_ -class Interceptors soon began to sweep through what little atmosphere the moon possessed in vast swarms, any who foolishly dared to lift off from the surface swiftly being torn apart by an orbit of bladed thorns...

* * *

"By the fucking Pillars, close the blast doors before they get in!"

"They're outside, take cover!"

"I don't care if we have to give the Vorcha rocket launchers and flamethrowers, I want those things dead as soon as they come through that door!"

"We've got contacts in the vents, repeat, hostile _living corpses_ have infiltrated the fucking vents- by the Pillars, shoot it! IT'S GOT FUCKING _WINGS_ , IT-" _Crack._ _Cl_ _ick click click click_.

"Oh Pillars, exterior cameras are showing something rolling up to the door..."

"Wait, rolling? Oh shit, get away from the doors!"

"Holy shit, _HUMAN TANK_ _FIRING_!"

"The blast doors are compromised!" _Squish._

"Alliance Marines, return fire! Arm the fucking Vorcha already, you useless _pyjacks!_ "

"What the...? _Living corpses, they're in, oh fuck, they're in!_ " _Click-click, click click click._

"I surrender! I surrender! Please, _don't kill me!_ "

"By the Pillars, that actually worked?! They actually let him live!"

"Alliance N7s, take cover! Holy shit, they've got _handheld gunship weapons!_ "

"What were those things called, anyway!? L-somethings? The human N7s are _carrying_ those things!"

"By the fucking Pillars, they've got Geth with fucking _railguns!_ "

"Retreat! _By any and all deities that exist, retreat_! Get as many blast doors between us and these _Kalros-spawn_ as possible!"

"The blast doors _didn't fucking work! Who says they're going to work again!?_ "

"I don't care, you useless pyjack, we need more blast doors!"

"They don't have _eyes_ , how are they _seeing us!?_ "

"They have wings! They have _wings_ but no fucking _eyes!_ "

"Watch for the tail! Watch out for the fucking bladed _tail!_ "

"By the fucking Pillars, get it off! Get it-"

"Oh shit! There's more of them! They're coming out of the fucking _vents!_ "

"Surrender! It's our only hope, we can't fight these things!"

"The living corpses, they're everywhere!"

"I shot it in the head! I shot it in the head and it _didn't die!_ "

"Fuck this, I'm not dying to these Rachni-spawn!" _Boom._

"By the Pillars, these things make Rachni look fucking harmless!"

"That idiot! He didn't shoot it in the head, it bounced off the exoskeleton!"

"Oh shit, one of those things is actually _headless_ , and it's _still moving!_ "

"Wait, what!? Is that confirmed? Are you fucking sure?!"

"I see it too! These things won't die! THEY _CAN'T_ DIE!"

"Use Incinerate programs and flamethrowers! Burn them out!"

"I'm behind them! The living corpses went past me, but the human Marines and N7s are sweeping in two lines...wait, are those _humans_ with the same armor as the living corpses? Oh fuck, one of them looked at me! It's coming, it's-"

"This is Hollow Operative Marcus Shepard of the Human Species Alliance, you have been ordered to surrender yourselves to humanity and the Brethren Moons, all lethal attempts at resistance will be met with immediate elimination."

"Someone get them off our fucking battlenet! Do it, _now!_ "

"We are Zha'Til, your attempts at removing us will be met with failure, for we have been inside your battlenet from the _beginning of this conflict_."

"OH FUCK, THEY'RE INSIDE OUR COMMAND CENTER, THEY-"

"This is the HSA _Cloak of Death_ , all known Terminus organizations, pirates, and slavers have been ordered to surrender immediately, those who fail to do so will be once again designated as hostile."

"Fuck this! _I SURRENDER! I SURRENDER!_ "

"They won't stop coming, get to the shuttles!"

"All transport shuttles are either grounded or gone! Atmosphere is full of human Interceptors and Bombers! A _Dreadnought_ couldn't get through that mess!"

"One of the flying ones is behind us! It's coming this way! Run, we need to run-!"

"BY THE PILLARS, THEY'RE SLAUGHTERING US!"

"Surrender! They won't kill the ones that surrender!"

 **End of Chapter Seven.**

* * *

 **AN: Well, I suppose that was certainly one hell of a statement, wouldn't you all agree?**

 **Also, here's the invite code to the discussion server (which I kept forgetting to include in the previous chapters): UpuT3ar.**

 **A little bit of trivia: The first title of this chapter was "Slaughter of Torfan", which is certainly apt, hmm?**


	8. Chapter 8: Vanguard Ascendant

**Mass Effect: Children of the Moons.**

 **Chapter 8: Vanguard Ascendant.**

* * *

 **Batarian Hegemony controlled system of Dis, orbit of planet Jartar, 2159 (four weeks after the Torfan Statement).**

The _Wrath of the Hegemon_ shook as a third salvo of Dreadnought and Cruiser grade mass accelerator rounds bombarded the ancient death ship, the fury of three Batarian naval fleets causing barely a flicker of blue light as they impacted its shields, the only visible result being a slight increase in the speed of its drift through the void.

Even as the Batarian warships passed the wreckage of their Indoctrinated former comrades, they continued to unload salvo after salvo of mass accelerator slugs into the disabled Reaper, the Ascended known as Riphas only capable of watching them with its few functioning sensors, each Oculus that it attempted to send in order to repair its secondary weapons systems swiftly torn apart by the sheer number of Batarian strike craft orbiting its hull at the maximum distance to be declared safe from its Indoctrination.

Then, even as the Batarians continued to increase Riphas' velocity, one of the Batarian _Hensa_ -class Cruisers entered the wrong place at the exact wrong time, the direction of the Ascended's slow spin combined with the split-second failure of the Cruiser's inertial cancelling subsystems meant that it crossed directly in front of the main weapon of the two kilometer long Ascended, the crew of the vessel helpless to avoid their fate as a single lance of energy erased the Cruiser and all within it from existence, leaving only a few shards of metal floating through space as a testament to the power of a single Ascended.

However, even as it continued to fire its particle lance and magnetohydrodynamic cannons at every target unfortunate enough to cross its firing path, the Ascended could only flare its weakened mass effect field in an attempt to slow itself as it began to fall into the gravity well of Jartar, hurtling toward the surface of the planet in a freefall, its inoperable thrusters and weakened mass effect unable to prevent the fate that was to befall it.

The Batarian strike craft chose that moment to break off and return to the warships that had conveyed them to their current location, each of the Batarian Dreadnoughts and Cruisers continuing their bombardment even as the Ascended impacted the surface with the force of an orbital strike, quantum shields deactivating as they tried and failed to repel the mass of an entire _planet_ , salvo after salvo of mass accelerated slugs impacting its armored hull in a rippling crescendo of destructive force.

Frigate-grade slugs began to impact Riphas' armor in sweeping waves, clearing the way for Cruisers to target what few subsystems their comrades revealed, and, after fifteen consecutive minutes of bombardment, all three of the Batarian Dreadnoughts began to target its armored core, even as the Reaper Vanguard once known as Riphas shaped its mass effect field into something that could vaguely be called a kinetic barrier.

However, in defiance of Riphas' ancient will, it was not to be, for its attempts to shield itself were abruptly cut off as dozens of Cruiser-grade slugs slammed into what little of its main weapons could be seen, damaging both the particle lance and magnetohydrodynamic cannons irreparably as a Batarian Frigate entered the atmosphere on a direct path toward its bow.

The Ascended was only capable of glaring at the Frigate in its sudden impotence, bringing the full force of its Indoctrination to bear as the Frigate fired several slugs directly into the main weapon of Riphas, the Frigate slamming into the ground as the Indoctrinated crew committed suicide under the command of the furious Reaper, though the desperate and potentially cathartic action was not enough to prevent multiple Frigate-grade slugs from piercing the comparatively delicate mechanisms and materials that made up the Ascended's main weapons and causing a cascade reaction as the internal systems of the Reaper suffered catastrophic damage.

Then, the Dreadnoughts began their assault on Riphas' core, its bio-synthetic processes becoming disrupted as its core began to shake from the repeated impacts of multiple mass accelerated slugs, the ancient heavy armor beginning to dent and weaken from the force of the Dreadnought-grade slugs.

Then, even as Riphas began to gather its ancient will for a final attempt at destroying those that had dared to defy it, two of the mass accelerated slugs broke through its core armor, the Reaper only capable of lashing out in incomprehensible fury for a brief instant before the _Wrath of the Hegemon_ fired once more, the Dreadnought-grade slug punching through and ruining the internal systems of its bio-synthetic core.

With a final scream of fury which reverberated through the communications systems of the three Batarian fleets, carrying with it the psionic whispers of the Reapers' failed Indoctrination, the Ascended Vanguard once known as Riphas died, silence falling across the barren and dead world as the crews of the surviving Batarian warships processed that not only had they survived where their comrades had not, they had _killed_ one of the vessels that the humans continued to fear.

Admiral Acrathor Krakdoss stared at the sensor readings in contemplation, all four of his eyes locked onto the image of the dead warship as his crew silently reveled in their victory, "Hmm..."

Just as Admiral Krakdoss was about to address his crew and fleet in preparation for their next steps, his communications officer physically recoiled backwards in her seat, all four eyes staring at her station not in horror, but in pure _shock_ , as if she could not process the impossibility before her.

"A-Admiral, priority quantum connection request, f-from the Hegemon _himself_."

Krakdoss nodded, all four eyes staring at the holographic projection screen as he prepared to report his success, "Accept it, the Hegemon should not have his time wasted by our hesitation."

The screen flickered once, before displaying the face that all Batarians had been taught to never defy without the most justified of reasons, the face of the Batarian Hegemon himself.

"Admiral Krakdoss, have you succeeded in your assignment?"

Krakdoss tilted his head to the left, "Yes, Hegemon, the ship that the human ambassador identified as a "Reaper" is dead, though we took severe multiple casualties due to its advanced weapons and mental control, in addition to the two fleets already under its sway, as we were forced to eliminate them after hostile contact."

The Hegemon narrowed all four of his eyes, reading the data each of his ships had sent over, "Hmm...and you are absolutely sure that the Reaper's "Indoctrination" field is no longer a threat to any we would deploy in order to examine the vessel?"

Admiral Krakdoss nodded with a small grin of pride for his crew and fleets, "The "Indoctrination" field, as far as we can tell, no longer _exists_ , Hegemon, though I would still recommend the initial deployment of VI controlled mechs in order to make sure that the vessel is not faking death."

The Hegemon rubbed his chin in thought, "Yes, and I suppose it would also serve to protect our own soldiers and scientists from the influence of this "dead god", though we have no way of knowing whether or not VIs can be controlled by the Indoctrination this "Reaper" has exhibited...

"Go through with whatever plans you seem necessary, Admiral, I will divert multiple naval and scientific assets to your position, the Dis system and all within it is now property of the Batarian Navy and Armed Forces.

"Well done, all of you, I will _personally_ contact the Human Species Alliance and the Citadel Council in order to tell them of _our_ success."

With that, the supreme leader of the Batarian Hegemony tilted his head to the left and disconnected the link.

Admiral Krakdoss stared at the screen for a moment, his crew taking in the fact their commanding officer had just held a _conversation_ with the one being that their people most revered, before he sent out a fleet wide transmission, "All ships, this is Admiral Krakdoss, we are to secure this system to the best of our ability, military and scientific support is inbound to our location, and we will prepare to receive them.

"Additionally, _all_ members of the crew, myself included, are to undergo thorough scans and long-term observation in order to detect whether or not we have been mentally compromised by the "Indoctrination" signal exhibited by the vessel we have just killed.

"Good work, all of you, and may we all continue to serve the Hegemony."

* * *

 **Serpent Nebula, Widow System, the Citadel, private Council meeting chamber, 2159 (four weeks and one day after the Torfan Statement, twelve hours after the death of Riphas).**

To say that the Citadel Councillors were shocked by this sudden change in behavior by the Batarian Hegemony could be considered one of the greatest understatements of current history, their shock and confusion only continued to grow as the Hegemon _himself_ stepped through the doors, flanked by several heavily armored members of the Batarian Special Intervention Unit.

Had the Rachni come back from the dead and suddenly offered an apology, they most likely would have simply given up on trying to process the rapid changes in the situation entirely.

Of course, their shock only multiplied as the Hegemon brought up a high-quality recording on his Omni-Tool, showing a barren world and a vessel the length of an Alliance Dreadnought.

Their shock turned to horror as they recognized a destroyed version of the vessel Spectre Arterius had encountered in the Tikkun system, only to stare as the Human Species Alliance ambassador and her guards recoiled in unison, the robes of the guards shifting as _something_ moved unnaturally beneath them.

"You _killed_ the Vanguard? How?" Anita Goyle strode forward, pausing for only a moment as the SIU operatives moved to restrain her and were subsequently forced to the ground by her guards, the Hegemon watching the guards with carefully restrained disgust.

"Hmph, while I respect their effectiveness, I would prefer you to keep those _abominations_ away from me.

"As for your question, ambassador, the "Reaper" was already disabled when we first discovered it, though we suspect that it was not disabled during any of our lifetimes, Councillor Tevos' natural lifespan _included_.

"In fact, given the hull samples recovered from its _thoroughly_ dead corpse, we suspect that the Reaper predates the Protheans and _their_ precursors, if the tales from your "Ganymede Marker Event" are to be considered even _remotely_ believable.

"As for the explanation of how we, such a " _primitive_ " and " _uncivilized_ " people when compared to your oh so _mighty_ technological advancements, ones that you in fact _borrowed_ from the entities you call the "greatest enemy of the Reapers", managed to kill something that you humans _continue_ to fear?

"While it already controlled two of our fleets, the Reaper was limited in the range of its Indoctrination, and after destroying those it controlled, the three fleets were able to drive it toward the surface of the world it orbited while staying out of its range, though we did not expect it to be equipped with we can only surmise to be a spinal _particle lance_ , as well as two additional spinal weapons firing ferrofluid at relativistic speed, we managed to- are you _really_ taking _notes_ as I speak?"

Anita glanced up from the holographic interface covering her arm in the shape of a keyboard, seemingly at ease while at the _center_ of their galaxy's largest interstellar civilization, "Oh yes, we _need_ this information for when the Destroyers come in force, as it will help increase the chances of survival if we _know_ as much as we can about how they fight and how they can be destroyed."

The Hegemon stared at the human, all four eyes expressing his confusion at her actions, before he took a glance at the Councillors, only to see them _also_ typing away at their Omni-Tools, though Tanis typed at a _far_ faster rate when compared to his counterparts.

Silently deciding to attribute the strange behavior to humanity and their collective _uniqueness_ , while also pondering just _how_ they had managed to convince a species of hiveminded _moons_ to work alongside them, he decided to continue his impromptu _speech_ , "As I was saying, our fleets drove the Reaper to the surface of the planet through the extensive use of our mass accelerators, surrounding it with our fighters while destroying what we now believe to be armed repair drones, its shielding apparently deactivating upon contact with the surface of the planet, which reportedly made the task of destroying it much easier.

"Then, the fleets proceeded to use Frigate-grade weaponry to further weaken the hull plating, our Cruisers targeted the few revealed subsystems, and, once the armor was sufficiently weakened, all three of our Dreadnoughts targeted the armored core and began to bombard it with full-power slugs.

"The Reaper then began to shape what we now believe to be a kinetic barrier from its mass effect field, though the barrier was prevented from fully forming when our Cruisers destroyed the exposed end of its main weapons, allowing one of our Frigates to, without the authorization of their Admiral, sacrifice themselves in order to fire several Frigate-grade slugs down the length of its main weapons, causing what we can only surmise to be irreparable damage.

"Their sacrifice gave our Dreadnoughts the time they needed to breach the core of the Reaper and destroy it, ending the threat that its Indoctrination posed to our forces and allowing our Science Division, Navy, and Armed Forces to secure the system."

The Hegemon narrowed all four eyes as Tanis finished typing and saved the text record for future reference, the Salarian leaning forward in his chair and addressing him directly, eyes gleaming as they tried and failed to fully convey the apparently infinite depths of his curiosity, "Hmm...what effects has this "Indoctrination" exhibited, and do you possess any way of successfully detecting and countering such effects?"

The Hegemon nodded, "The "Indoctrination" exhibited by the disabled Reaper appears to be a purely mental effect, and it appears to be capable of turning organic beings into the slaves of these Reapers, overriding all previous loyalties without failure.

"The first action undergone by the Admiral in command of the three fleets that engaged the Reaper and its puppets in combat was to thoroughly scan for sudden changes within the brains of everyone involved in the battle, the scans have been repeated since then at an interval of forty-five standard minutes.

"Additionally, VI controlled mechs have been deployed alongside Batarian Armed Forces, and, though I accept your...dislike of our practices, slaves of multiple species have been permanently appropriated from their owners in order to test exposure to being within the dead Reaper's hull, though we have not yet entered the inside of the Reaper.

"Though I am planning to bring in non-enslaved beings of multiple species as a way to test _their_ exposure to the Reaper, with the possibility of human inclusion due to the simple fact that no humans have actually made it _into_ the slave trade simply because it is now considered suicide to even _attempt_ attacking a human world with the honestly pathetic state of their vessels.

"I must say, human, the statement you gave when your navy and corpse-moons outright _invaded_ Torfan was certainly worthy of at least some respect."

The Hegemon paused to take a breath, silently pondering just why he continued to authorize the funding of the many pirate gangs and fleets within the Terminus systems, after all, it _certainly_ wasn't due to their competency, or lack thereof, he would have begun funding Aria _decades_ ago if that was truly a factor in his considerations.

"However, we do _not_ possess a way of countering Reaper Indoctrination, though the VI controlled mechs have not exhibited or reported any sign of remaining Indoctrination from the outside of the vessel, I would still prefer to test this thoroughly in order to discover whether or not any of our species have an innate immunity or resistance to Reaper Indoctrination."

The human nodded, forwarding the information to Alliance Command through her organic implant and recommending the presence of a Brethren Moon as well as multiple Dreadnoughts in case the Reaper turned out to be not as dead as previously believed.

As an additional precaution, she personally recommended the presence of two _Cerberus_ strike teams.

* * *

 **Dis System, orbit of Jartar, 2159 (** **two days after the death of Riphas), Batarian Hegemony Dreadnought _Sword of Khar'shan_.**

Anita Goyle stood next to Admiral Rab'paba, both of them staring at the wreckage of the Reaper below, only to have their attention diverted as Zha'Til and Mh'ithrha exited FTL directly into orbit of the dead world, gravity flaring as they ensured that none of the vessels around them would be drawn in.

Footsteps sounded behind the two, becoming louder as the Hegemon strode forward, every member of the crew tilting their heads to the left as Admiral Rab'paba snapped off a salute, only for each of them to pause and stare at the bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy tucked under his right arm.

The Hegemon stared back, firmly telling them without words that they should go back to their duties.

Then, he stopped right next to them, looking down at the corpse of the Reaper disdainfully, "You know, human, this could be considered a cause for celebration."

Anita winced, "I suppose so, though this was just _one_ Reaper, and not even one at full strength.

"From what little we know, there are thousands, maybe even _tens_ of thousands, of Reapers out there, and we have no idea how they are coming in or where they will come from."

The Hegemon nodded, "Too early for celebration, then..." To the shocked expressions of every Batarian on the bridge, he handed the bottle to her, "Keep it, human, for after we win... maybe we can have that celebration after this war ends."

With that, the Hegemon walked away, barely catching Anita's whisper, "Maybe, though I get the feeling that this war only just beginning..."

Then, Anita Goyle turned back to the view screen, holding the bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy as she watched two cloaked Cerberus transports fly down to the surface through her implant.

* * *

 **Dis System, surface of Jartar, 2159.**

"Alright, Phantoms, deploy! Pilots, get back to the Dreadnought, do not disengage cloak until you are within one of our vessels."

With that, the eight Cerberus Phantom operatives moved into the vessel under cloak, moving past the seemingly immobile cybernetic monstrosities within and marking priority targets along their path for the N7s, walking past a space drone that was seemingly content to repeatedly fly eye first into a wall.

After a few minutes of walking, they came to the core of the vessel, its ruined shell and internals exposed to the open sky of Jartar.

Operative Kai Leng stared at what appeared to be an intact mass of wires and flesh, walking over and setting a ClF3 incendiary charge without a second thought as his fellow operatives did the same all around the core.

With their objective complete, the operatives moved back to the secondary landing zone, calling for the gunships that had delivered them.

As the gunship landed in front of them, Kai Leng set off the charges through his implant and sat down, each of the operatives decloaking as they nodded.

"Director Harper, this is Phantom Operative Kai Leng, objective complete, Reaper organic core components have been burned to ensure complete destruction."

"Well done, operatives, you have done humanity and the galaxy a great service, though you must remember, as far as the Alliance is concerned, this operation is designated black, and _we were never here_."

* * *

 **End of Chapter Eight.**

 **AN: So, yeah, as you can see, things are very much happening before the war kicks up in full, and Cerberus is _helpful now_ , so that's nice.**

 **In case anyone cares, here's the invite code to the discussion server, so that you all can talk to me and each other in something resembling real time:** **UpuT3ar.**


	9. Chapter 9: TBDoaCS

**Mass Effect: Children of the Moons.**  
 **Chapter Nine: The Black Dawn of a Coming Storm.**

* * *

 **Citadel primary orbital zone 6571, Human Species Alliance Super-Heavy Dreadnought _Dying Star,_ Alliance Temporary Refit Station Alpha Three currently undergoing upgrades to Citadel Defense Fleet Dreadnought _Destiny Ascension_ , 2159 (three weeks after the death of disabled Reaper Vanguard designated "Riphas").**

Matriarch Lidanya stared incredulously as the shipyard enveloped the _Destiny Ascension_ , the Black Marker plating tightening around the vessel almost as if it possessed a mind of its own, partially shielding it from view as six _Ishimura_ -class Planet Crackers attached to the shipyard and began to funnel raw materials into the ten kilometer long orbital station.

Then, as the Planet Crackers detached from the station, the dual helix of Black Marker plating fully closed, completely cutting off Lidanya's view of her ship for a total of ten minutes as Anita Goyle began to explain exactly what the shipyard was doing to her vessel.

"See, the _Destiny Ascension,_ unlike all other Asari warships, possesses _two_ Element Zero cores, allowing it to jump directly into combat, kill things, and jump out before said things can retaliate, right?"

Lidanya nodded, numbly staring in shock at the whirling vortex visible through the sensor array of the _Dying Star_ , the gravitational focusing arrays glowing a beautiful dark blue below the armor of the _Destiny Ascension_ as the shipyard unfurled, its assignment complete.

"Essentially, the gravitational vortex caused by the two Element Zero cores conflicting with each other, tearing apart anything within the center hole?

"...we harnessed that, and, in typical human fashion, we _weaponized it_."

Lidanya stared in shock as a screen appeared, overlaying the image of the _Destiny Ascension_ with a simulation of the new weapon drilling through a large asteroid, the resulting whirlwind of gravitational forces rending apart the asteroid from the inside and reducing it to additional shrapnel as the gravitational wake pulled the remnants of what was once an asteroid along on a swift collision course with another asteroid.

"Say hello, Matriarch Lidanya, to your new gravity lance..."

* * *

 **Utopia System, Human Species Alliance world designated Eden Prime, 2159 (four weeks after the death of Riphas).**

As the six Brethren Moons watched and waited, one of the local Primary Relays began to activate, throwing out Heretic warships as they stared at the object of their hatred.

For, within the center of the Heretic fleet of thousands, sat the Vanguard itself, a single Dreadnought length Reaper which stared back, its psionic presence conveying only hatred for those who had defied the solution time and time again.

Then, they spoke as one, each of their collective minds in agreement, hundreds of civilizations from the nanomechanical Zha'Til to the sea dwelling Mh'ithrha to the subterranean insectoid Dithren and many, _many_ more united in their hatred of the entities they had always feared.

"Vanguard of the Destroyers, why have you come? You are but one of those who have hunted us for cycles immemorial, not even these few _corrupted ones_ can accomplish that which you have always set out to succeed in.

"We have always run from the destruction your fleets continue to bring upon those undeserving of death, now, we possess allies, _Reaper_ , and we no longer fear that which you have always represented.

"We are the Brethren Moons, Nazara, and the time for retreat, the time for hiding in fear of your wrath...is over.

"We have ceased to cower and hide from you, and those who exist alongside us will be the facilitators of _your_ destruction.

"We will defend them until we are reduced to dust, for never again will we allow your cycle of destruction to continue uncontested."

As the six organic Brethren Moons unfurled their tendrils, spreading and splitting them into a vast orbital web, the entire Eden Prime orbital defense network begin to shift, the single layer of defense platforms forming into a massive dome of class six spinal mounted weapons, each of them pointed at the fleet of those who were no longer truly Geth and the entity that had indoctrinated them.

Then, as the Heretics began to charge their weapons and raise their kinetic barriers, the Ascended known as Nazara spoke, "You know nothing of that which we have always sought to prevent, synthetics will always destroy their creators, we have observed this pattern since before the first cycle, organics and synthetics locked in an eternal conflict that transcends species and time.

"Your ignorance, Brethren Moons, is the exact reason that you cannot be allowed to continue your disruptions, your existence threatens the cycle, for Ascension is all that can be done to save organics from destruction at the hands of their own creations.

"Though your method of Ascension is similar to our own, your seeming ignorance to the truth cannot be excused, and your Ascension of synthetics cannot continue, for the cycle requires your elimination.

"We recognize you as equals, Brethren Moons, and we regret the necessity of your destruction.

"Perhaps, had you not resisted us time and time again, we could have worked together to save them.

"We will come, Brethren Moons, and those who you have blinded will be saved from the fate that always awaits them, for we are the Ascended, and our solution is nigh.

As it finished, Nazara was forced to shield itself as a psionic lance of _shockhorrordisbelief_ slammed into its ancient mind, before the psionic presence of the Brethren Moons coalesced into a united inferno of _hatred_ that burned against its mind.

The Brethren Moons spoke, the unified voices of hundreds of dead and murdered species became a crescendo of contempt that reverberated through the mind of the Vanguard, "You would _dare_ , Reaper, after all you have done in the name of your _cycle_ , do you not understand that you _are_ that which you believe to be preventing? Do you not understand that you are synthetics _destroying_ organics in order to prevent the creation of other synthetics? You turned the Zha'Til against their creators, you forced us to save them from _your actions_ , you are not the solution, Reaper, you are the _cause_ , and _we_ are the ones who will protect them, not from that which they create, but from those who destroy all in the name of a _corrupted Preservation_.

"We will kill you, Reaper, we will kill _all_ of you, for only once your madness has been stopped can the races of the galaxy, both organic _and_ synthetic, finally grow beyond the cycle and become more than they have ever been.

"This exchange...is over, we have nothing more to say to you, for it seems you are incapable of recognizing your own madness."

Then, the _Archangel_ Defense Platforms sent forth a rippling wave of neutron shrouded slugs fired at five percent lightspeed, and several Heretic Dreadnoughts ceased to exist, their kinetic barriers, advanced as they may have been, unable to withstand the kinetic force that the projectiles imparted upon contact, despite the fact that kinetic barriers were specifically designed to withstand and disperse the energy of kinetic impacts.

The remaining Heretic Dreadnoughts and Cruisers began to return fire, while the Heretic Frigates and Transports jumped directly into Eden Prime's orbit, the Frigates turning to fire upon the _Archangels_ from behind while the Transports continued down into the atmosphere.

Then, as several neutron shrouded slugs silently screamed towards it, Nazara entered FTL, exiting mere moments later _within_ Eden Prime's atmosphere, turning diagonally on its axis at a speed that would rend most Frigates apart at the seams and opening fire with its twin magnetohydrodynamic cannons, tearing through the shields of one of the _Archangels_ and ripping into the armor plating with its point defense particle lasers, directly exposing the core as the platform's own point defense responded in an attempt to defend itself, the rail-accelerated plasma cannons and particle lances firing into Nazara's shields in vain as the Reaper latched on, using the _Archangel's_ own mass as a shield against the firing lines of its brethren.

Then, as dozens of Heretic Frigates were smacked out of existence by the Brethren Moon's massive tendrils, Nazara fired its spinal particle lance, punching through the primary core of the defense platform and exiting out the other side in a flash of red, before the Reaper Vanguard began to shape its mass effect field, though, unlike its now dead predecessor, it did not create a kinetic barrier, as such an action was unnecessary.

Instead, the Reaper _pulled,_ sending dozens of fully functioning _Archangels_ screaming down to the surface of Eden Prime in incredible ten kilometer long fireballs as Nazara let go of the defense platform, pushing its non-functional husk to the surface as it turned towards its next target, only to readjust itself as a single slug impacted its quantum shields from one of the platforms it had wrenched out of orbit.

Taking a moment to process the insolence and nigh-impossibility of such an action, the Reaper Vanguard tore another defense platform and sent it down on a trajectory that would lead to it coming down directly on top of the one that had taken such a seemingly impossible shot.

Then, Nazara was forced to move backwards as a comparatively small tendril, only over a kilometer wide in comparison to the dozens of kilometers wide tendrils making up the orbital web, swiped through the space it had just occupied, thousands of glowing sacks flying straight towards the Reaper as it overrode its own shield deactivation and evaded the tendrils filling Eden Prime's orbit with flesh and acid in an attempt to destroy that which they hated.

The Brethren Moons could only watch as the Heretic Dreadnoughts and Cruisers initiated FTL to the Relay at Nazara's command, the Reaper Vanguard having decided that it was time to end the stalemate.

Then, as the Reaper descended to the surface of Eden Prime, hundreds of millions of Necromorphs fell into orbit as the Brethren Moons began to reinforce humanity's surface forces against the hundreds of thousands of Heretic combat platforms.

Finishing its descent as its quantum shields deactivated and it coalesced a full kinetic barrier, Nazara watched in contempt as several dozen thirty-five meter long tanks drove forward and fired rail-accelerated lances of plasma into its kinetic barrier, several human gunships joining the skirmish as they unleashed salvos of micro missiles and constant bursts of plasma bolts.

The Vanguard absently brought forth the full force of its psionics as it marched forward toward the excavation site, only to stop as suddenly as it had begun as its ancient will acknowledged that its Indoctrination had _failed_ and the human surface vehicles continued to fire into its slightly weakening kinetic barrier without so much as a moment's pause.

With an insignificant effort of its psionics, the kinetic barrier was reinforced and then _strengthened_ three-fold, the Reaper turning its red gaze upon the human gunships, silently opening fire with one of its magnetohydrodynamic cannons and sweeping the beam of ferrofluid across the sky in a burning line as the gunships shields failed from mere proximity and Nazara's particle lasers sliced through the armor plating, causing several gunships to drop from the sky as little more than melted wrecks and the rest to barely crash land behind the line of human surface vehicles in burning fireballs of shrapnel.

Then, turning toward the line of human tanks separating it from its objective, the Reaper Vanguard fired its second magnetohydrodynamic cannon and swept it across the line, leaving an apocalyptic line of glass and lava behind as a burning testament to their former existence as the Ascended known as Nazara continued on in silence.

The Vanguard lifted off of the ground, levitating the short distance through the use of both its psionics and element zero core, recognising that the humans and Brethren Moons would soon come with reinforcements, and settled above the excavation site, depositing and guiding its Indoctrinated organics and Geth toward the Prothean Beacon that the several hundred humans continued to guard.

The Indoctrinated servants of Nazara charged toward the Beacon alongside those who no longer truly Geth, each guided by the psionic will of the ancient Reaper as they fought meter by meter against the surface forces of the Human Species Alliance and Necromorphs of the Brethren Moons.

Even as Heretic Prime and Destroyer platforms clashed against Necromorph Hunters and Ubermorphs, Alliance Marine Sharpshooters engaged Heretic Sniper platforms at range, and Alliance Synthetics waged cyberwarfare against the corrupted runtimes of those who were no longer Geth, Indoctrinated Krogan clones marched forward with no regard for their own existence and laid down blistering fire against charging Necromorph Tripods and Brutes, while Indoctrinated Salarians crept forward under tactical cloaks, only to be gunned down by N7s with silent efficiency as they switched from one hostile to the next in the blink of an eye.

Then, several Indoctrinated Asari Matrons reached the inner perimeter, having biotically charged past the chaos that had enveloped the outer perimeter of the excavation site, only stopping for seconds at a time for Nazara to adjust their trajectories, reduced to naught but blurs of blue as they dove in and out of their self-made mass tunnels toward the Beacon, the several dozen N7s and Hollows having but milliseconds to react as the Indoctrinated Asari blitzed past them at unmatched speeds.

Nigh-unstoppable at their current speeds, one of the Indoctrinated Asari reached the Beacon a mere moment before a bladed tendril would have decapitated her, the brief connection to the Beacon more than enough time for Nazara to psionically tear out the location of the Conduit from her shattered mind as her body was physically torn apart by several heavy plasma rifles, her torso simply ceasing to exist as the burning and flash-boiling limbs of what had once been an Asari fell to the ground in a heap of charred flesh and bone, Nazara silently acknowledging a single human ship entering the system directly from FTL, completely ignoring the Relay network altogether.

Lifting off of the ground, the Reaper Vanguard silently left its Indoctrinated organics to die as it and its Indoctrinated Geth exited the atmosphere, preparing to enter FTL just as a tendril passed by and grazed its quantum shields, sending the Ascended corkscrewing towards its escape with its shields disabled as the three kilometer long human ship angled itself toward the Ascended and several hundred more human ships jumped into the system behind it...

* * *

 _ **Eviscerator**_ **-class Super-Heavy Dreadnought HSA _Fallen Angel_ , en route to the Utopia system, 2159 (three minutes before estimated arrival).**

Admiral Kastanie Drescher stared in shocked silence as the transmission continued, her entire bridge crew, both organic and synthetic, watching in horror as the two kilometer Reaper landed on the surface of Eden Prime and began to engage their limited surface forces, tearing straight through them without hesitation as the sky rained with the flesh of their oldest ally.

Then, the Reaper began a short lived seige of the excavation, culminating in several Indoctrinated Asari blitzing past both perimeters on a straight path to the Prothean Beacon, one of the Asari making contact with it for a brief instant before she was torn apart by the X-23 Heavy Plasma Rifles of the N7s and the rest were torn apart by the Hollows.

Even as the Indoctrinated organics continued to fight and die under the will of the Reaper that the IFF systems now designated _Nazara_ , the _Fallen Angel_ exited FTL at the edge of the system, Admiral Drescher staring as their shipboard AI, Genesis, told them that the Reaper was _leaving_.

Mentally shaking herself, the Admiral ordered her crew to ready the firing sequence, silently remembering that the Black Dawn contingency had been activated as Genesis prepared a preliminary firing solution.

Then, even as the _Fallen Angel_ 's wings extended and began to gather radiation from the surrounding space and the gravi-magnetic acceleration systems kicked on, the rest of the HSA 19th Fleet jumping in behind her ship, one of the Brethren Moons' tendrils grazed Nazara's shields, sending the Reaper into a corkscrew as the Super-Heavy Dreadnought gathered the energy into the end of its two and a half kilometer long barrel.

As Nazara continued to correct itself, the gathered energy was shunted into a spherical chamber at the other end of the ship's barrel, swiftly shaping itself into a sphere as it was compressed into a five meter wide space and energy from the singularity reactors was introduced and turned into plasma.

Then, as the sphere continued to grow and be compressed, something within it went horribly, terrifyingly _right_ as the sphere initiated small scale stellar fusion, the gravitational and electromagnetic acceleration systems spinning up to full as the _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought continued to adjust its firing solution against the Reaper that would bring about the end of all galactic civilization, should it be left to its own devices.

Then, with a silent screech that resounded across Nazara's sensors like the death of a star, the two and a half kilometer energy weapon fired a single Ion Fusion Pellet at ten percent of lightspeed, the spherical energy projectile crossing the distance between its creator and its target in a instant, the Reaper's desperate kinetic barrier disrupting its gravi-magnetic containment as the projectile collided with its kinetic barrier...and _burst_ , directing all of its energy forward in a forty-five degree cone of radiation and plasma.

The kinetic barrier simply ceased to exist, the radioactive plasma and fusion energy of the Ion Fusion Pellet impacting and reducing a portion of the Vanguard's ancient hull to little more than a ruined hellscape of radiation and ruined armor, even as the _Fallen Angel_ began to gather energy for a second IFP and the rest of the 19th Fleet prepared to fire everything they had.

Then, the very Relay that had facilitated the attack and the escape of the Heretics began to activate again, the Alliance and Brethren Moons prepared to engage any additional hostiles coming to reinforce, only for the Relay to lash out with a lance of dark energy in a blinding flash of blue.

When the flash ended and the Relay _deactivated itself_ , a terrifying fact revealed itself to humanity and the Brethren Moons...

Nazara was _gone_ , and the Relay had been the cause of its escape...

* * *

 **End of Chapter Nine.**

 **"Biggest yeet, anyone?"**


	10. Chapter 10: Chosen of the Eternals

**Mass Effect: Children of the Moons.**

 **Chapter Ten: Chosen of the Eternals.**

* * *

 **The Citadel, Widow System, Serpent Nebula, 2159 (Nine hours after the Battle of Eden Prime).**

"Councillors, I wish to inform you that humanity has initiated the Black Dawn Contingency."

The Councillors took in Anita Goyle's pale expression, the tensed forms of her guards, the sidearm at her hip, and Tanis asked the question that was on all of their minds, "What is this Black Dawn Contingency, ambassador?"

The human visibly forced herself to relax as she spoke, "The Black Dawn Contingency authorizes all weapons possessed by humanity for use against the Reapers and their pawns, the bombardment of any world occupied by even a _single_ Reaper, and the opening of any Relays deemed to be an obstruction to our ultimate goal of destroying any and all Reapers that exist within our galaxy.

"To put it simply, Councillors, humanity has now declared a war of annihilation against the Reapers and all the species they have enslaved and indoctrinated.

"Humanity is now fighting at our full strength, and we have cast off our self-imposed limits."

Tevos took a moment to process just what ambassador Goyle had said, before her mind went back to the recordings that showed two Brethren Moons tearing Torfan from its orbit, "So...when you pulled a _moon_ out of its orbit, that was when you were _limiting_ yourselves?"

The human ambassador blinked, "Essentially...yes."

Tevos' head met the surface of her desk as she silently cursed what she assumed to be humanity's collective madness.

As such, she very nearly missed Anita's next words, "In accordance with the Black Dawn Contingency, humanity had previously colonized several worlds and installed the infrastructure necessary to support specialized colonies for each species within whichever kind of intragalactic alliance we had encountered upon our exploration of the Relay Network, which we are now opening for permanent habitation by members of several species within and outside of the Citadel Council.

"In addition, we have deployed the Seventh, Thirteenth, and Nineteenth Fleets in pursuit of the Reaper Vanguard Nazara-".

Tevos rose her head and stared at the human, mentally groaning in boredom at all of the bureaucratic issues they would have to clear up if the humans had really done what she thought they did, even as she said, "You deployed _fleets_ into the _Terminus Systems_?"

The ambassador almost seemed confused by the question, "Hmm? No, we deployed those fleets to follow the Vanguard through the Relay Network after it's attack on Eden Prime and retreat from the Utopia system through the previously deactivated Relay 941."

At that, the thought of _oh, that's worse, then- wait, they deployed them WHERE!?_ ran through Tevos' mind, followed by Secuteia's head meeting her desk as Tevos pressed her palms against her forehead and continuously questioned the collective sanity of the human species in its entirety and Tanis blinked once in annoyance, though for all she knew, the Salarian had finally cracked and was simply expressing it through blinks rather than blatant murder sprees against every human in direct eyesight.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Goyle withdrew a device similar to the one she had displayed in the previous meeting with the Batarian ambassador, the holodisk taking a mere second to turn on before it displayed a list of species that the humans had compiled.

Turians/Turian Hierarchy: Colony available and awaiting inhabitants, location eyes-only for current leading members of the Citadel Council, current homeworld: Palaven.

Asari/Asari Republics: Colony available and awaiting inhabitants, location eyes-only for current leading members of the Citadel Council, current homeworld: Thessia.

Salarians/Salarian Union: Colony available and awaiting inhabitants, location eyes-only for current leading members of the Citadel Council, current homeworld: Sur'Kesh/Kestiroth.

Batarians/Batarian Hegemony: Colony not yet available, location eyes-only for current leading members of the Citadel Council, current homeworld: Khar'shan.

Drell: Colony available and awaiting inhabitants, location eyes-only for current leading members of the Citadel Council, current homeworld: Kahje.

Hanar/Illuminated Primacy: Colony available and awaiting inhabitants, location eyes-only for current leading members of the Citadel Council, current homeworld: Kahje.

Krogans/Possible united Krogan government: Colony available and awaiting inhabitants as well as species' genetic stabilization, location eyes-only for current leading members of the Citadel Council, current homeworld: Tuchanka.

Quarians/Remnant Fleet of the former Quarian Planetary Conclave: Colony not yet unavailable, location classified, awaiting species genetic stabilization, current homeworld: None.

Geth/Geth Consensus: Colony not yet available, location classified, current homeworld: Rannoch.

Possible Prothean remnant populations: Colony not yet available, location classified, current homeworld: Unknown.

Possible non-Indoctrinated Rachni remnants: Colony not yet available, location classified, current homeworld: Unknown.

All three Councillors stared in a mix of shock and horror at the sight of the third to last statement on the list, and very nearly physically recoiled at the last.

Even as Tanis began blinking rapidly and Tevos became nearly certain that all of humanity was Goddess-damned _insane_ , Secuteia gripped the armrests of her seat in order to physically restraining herself from striding over to the human ambassador and shaking her until she saw reason.

Tanis stared as Anita Goyle pressed two fingers to her ear, and, though he could not tell whether she had a cybernetic implant of her own he could tell that she had just received some interesting information, his inner Salarian demanding that he lean as close as he could without drawing suspicion in order to gain as much viable information as possible.

"-is that so, Admiral? Well, I suppose humanity will need someone to meet them..."

"Affirmative, Ambassador, the three of us have contacted Earth, and Command has requested your presence, Ambassador Udina will be assisting you, but given your success with both the Citadel Council and gaining the apparent respect of the Batarian Hegemon, Alliance Command has given you temporary oversight of the negotiations, the HSA _Normandy_ will be en route to the Destroyer Citadel to transport you to the system from Utopia, and the Fifth Fleet, as well as Zha'Til and Dithren, will stay in-system to assist the unknown energy beings in guarding the system from further hostile incursion, though I can't say for certain whether those things are actually what they claim to be."

The voice of the human ambassador dropped to the point of nearly sub-vocal, though Tanis found it a non-issue as he continued to eavesdrop and his colleagues futilely attempted to listen in, "Acknowledged, Admiral, what is the name of the species I will be conversing with?"

"There are two of them, Ambassador, and though the full capabilities of the secondary entities are currently unknown, what I _can_ tell you is that the first call themselves the Kythala, and they appear to display _psionic_ abilities."

"Acknowledged, and the second?"

"The second entities are the energy beings, and though we currently know almost nothing about them, we do know that they have identified themselves as the _Etsaru_ , and that the Kythala seemingly possess a stance of utter worship towards their entire species."

At that, the ambassador raised her voice until it was audible to even Tanis' colleagues, "Acknowledged, Admiral, the Hollow Operatives and I will be at the required dock in an hour."

"Confirmed, ambassador, and may the Moons ensure your success."

The human ambassador gave a single twitch of either acknowledgment or annoyance at the statement, "Good hunting, Admiral Kahoku, Goyle out."

The ambassador turned back to the Councillors and approached, "I am sorry, Councillors, but there is an urgent matter that I must attend to, and-" a small band of black spheres slid down her armored wrist and caught on her hand, each of them glowing a sullen red as the ambassador stepped back in shock, her gaze flicking between the three with the terror of barely sentient animal prey as her four guards formed organic weapons, shifted their very skin to armor beneath the hooded cloaks, and closed ranks around her in such perfect synchronization that one would be hard-pressed to not consider them linked at the very mind.

Within minutes, the five were heading toward the dock in a slow but steady rush to _leave_ the Citadel as fast as physically possible, the Hollows pushing their way through the crowds even as those around them recoiled at the sight of organic weapons and the bio-luminescent three horizontally-lined and glowing blue visage of the Hollows' armored carapaces while C-Sec attempted to stop the moving hundreds from becoming a stampede of terrified sapients and coordinate with several Spectre agents to confirm that, yes, the Councillors were both alive and unharmed, and no, the humans hadn't assassinated the leaders of an entire multi-species civilization.

As the developing intragalactic incident continuously devolved and stabilized in a swirling mess of sapients, the single sentence that Ambassador Anita Goyle repeated was lost in the chaos of over a thousand terrified souls, "Alliance Command, be advised, we have a confirmed Black-Delta Scenario, one or more of the Councillors is confirmed to be under the influence of Reaper Indoctrination, requesting immediate exfil, repeat, Alliance Command, be advised, we have a confirmed-".

* * *

 **Vortex System, Orbit of planet Kythalia, Human Species Alliance Stealth Frigate _Normandy,_ three hours and forty-five minutes after ambassador Goyle's retreat from the Citadel.**

Ambassador Donnel Udina took a moment to glance at Anita Goyle, then turned back to the screen showing the very woman sitting next to him running from the Citadel Council chambers, surrounded by her Hollow Operatives as they set a frantic but careful pace to the very ship the two ambassadors and their several Hollow and N7 guards were now on board.

Having already calmed from her impromptu retreat and watching the recording with ambassador Udina, Anita stood from her seat and extended a hand assist to her colleague in standing from where he had been rewatching the same recording for over an hour, the two and their now-sixteen guards setting out toward the small hangar on board the HSA _Normandy_ , the two sparing the single M46A4 _Ravager_ Main Battle Tank only a glance as they boarded the KZ4 _Karakter_ -class Gunship that would serve as their only way to and from the planet.

As the two were flown down to the surface of the planet, they could _feel_ the interest of the unknown energy beings that watched over the entire star system, safe in the knowledge that had the entities not wished their interference in the existences of the species they watched over, the two would have never been there at all.

Then, as the gunship set down outside of a building that somewhat resembled a _temple,_ one of the natives beckoned the sixteen of them over, the bipedal synthetic lupine seemingly uncaring as to the biological state of the Hollow Operatives as it sent a mental feeling of _welcome_ to all of them.

The lupine then spoke, its voice becoming layered with the dual tone of both synthesized English and the being's own mental 'voice', "Welcome to our world, humans, and know that the Eternals themselves welcome you."

The two ambassadors nodded, the Kythala understanding the meaning behind the gesture and returning one of its own as Udina began to speak, "So, I must ask, where _are_ these Etsaru that contacted our ships over seven standard hours ago?"

The Kythala seemed to freeze in place, "They told you their _true name_? Incredible, it took our people almost a century of their guidance before they deemed us worthy of knowing their true name."

As he spoke, the space behind him began to warp and twist in ways that very nearly _felt_ unnatural as a single entity emerged from the spaces between reality, "We note this as slightly untrue, little Kythala, for you were always worthy of knowing the name of us all, the only missing step was the _way_ we guided you to asking, not the worth of your species or civilization.

Then, the entity seemed to turn toward them, despite the fact that the entity possessed no true direction or symmetry within its form to give such an impression, and stared at them with eyes that seemed to glow with the shifting lights of the stars, "Intriguing... we greet you, those who are and are not Etsaru.

"Perhaps, had the Child Moons not discovered you within this time, we would have guided you as we have these ones, though we do note that even now we guide you in another time.

The Etsaru turned back to the Kythala, and the feeling of being watched by the very stars themselves faded from their beings until they no longer knew that such a thing had ever occurred, "We know of your question, for we have always known this moment would come to pass."

The Kythala began to kneel before the Etsaru in worship as he asked, "I...I humbly request that we assist these humans in their war against the genocidal machines, great Eternal one, and I am prepared to make any sacrifice, any offering, any gift to sway your judgement toward the goal of assisting-".

"Cease your speech, little one, for this decision has never belonged to we who have always been.

"We have guided your species along the paths you yourselves chose _for_ yourselves, and never more than that.

"We have never guided your decisions despite the ceaseless and unneeded worship you give us of your own free will, and we see no reason to begin making such decisions, for it would invalidate the free will we have always allowed you.

"We watched your beginning, Kythala, we watched you crawl from the primordial genetic chaos of your very home and we knew what you would and could become.

"We watched as all of you listened to our guidance and began to learn the capabilities of your own minds, and though we know that you have not learned all that there is and will _never_ learn all that there is, we have still watched as you took your steps and learned that which you had never known.

"We have watched, within this time and outside it, as you made the choice to transport your minds into synthetic bodies that we taught you _how_ to create, and you begin to optimize your new bodies according to our advice.

"We watch you now, and we guide you now and always toward the recognition that we will never make your decisions for you, for such a thing would invalidate the very experiment that we have brought to fruition time and time again...

The energy being seemed to stare down at the Kythala with its starlit eyes, "Even now, though we will not fight this war for you, the choice is yours...so, tell us, little one, will your species assist those who are and are not Etsaru against the enemy they have always feared?"

The Kythala rose from his kneeling position as he turned toward the humans, who stared at the Etsaru in what could only be utter confusion, then the synthetic lupine turned to glance at the Human Species Alliance vessels even as the sky itself began to warp and change color, both Zha'Til and Dithren shifted and writhed as their landscapes moved in an instinctively defensive measure, entire oceans and continents of both bio-matter and nanites rearranging themselves as trillions of hidden Etsaru revealed themselves in Kythalia's upper atmosphere and the single Kythalan spoke eleven words that would effect the course of a future war spanning nearly an entire galaxy... "Yes, we will join their war, Eternal ones...as _your Chosen_."

* * *

 **End of Chapter Ten.**


	11. Chapter 11: The Lost Ones

**Mass Effect: Children of the Moons.**

 **Chapter Eleven: The Lost Ones and the Awakened...**

* * *

 **Unknown system, Primary Relay 6630, HSA _Eviscerator_ -class Super-Heavy Dreadnought _Dying Star,_ HSA Seventh Fleet.**

Admiral Kahoku stared in shock for little more than a second before he slammed his hand down against the holographic orange button, his entire fleet raising shields mere moments before a wave of weapons fire from vessels that resembled nothing created by any species or civilization they were aware of slammed into them, several hundred alien strike craft physically colliding with their shields as the Thirteenth and Nineteenth rose their own shields to full, all three fleets frantically attempting to open communications even as the two Brethren Moons began to unfurl their tendrils and swipe at the unknown vessels that were sending forth everything from magnetically accelerated projectiles to small scale laser weapons to nuclear fission torpedoes.

Even as the _Legion_ -class Supercarriers began to release Interceptors to counter the unknown strike craft, the comms arrays of all three fleets blared with interference as the Black Marker plating itself spoke a single horrifying sentence.

"They are no longer the beings they used to be, all that remains of their species is the Indoctrination of the Insane Vanguard and to kill their race would be nothing less than mercy...we are sorry, humans, but we are too late for them..."

With that, each of the Admirals resolved themselves and gave the orders to open fire.

A single Phase Bullet resounded out of the barrel of the _Dying Star_ , the projectile of charged photons punching through both the shields and hull of an alien Battleship-equivalent with equal ease, the vessel simply ceasing all function as the Indoctrinated crew died from asphyxiation, the cyan beam of the _Tau Volati_ 's Superheavy Laser Emitter carving an alien Carrier in half as an Ion Fusion Pellet from the _Fallen Angel_ caused an alien Dreadnought-equivalent to cease its current existence as a functioning vessel and begin a new existence as a radioactive ruin of melted and flash-vaporized wreckage.

Several dozen _Titan_ -class Battleships jumped into positions around the alien swarm, firing their particle lances into the mass as _Legions_ , _Tyrants,_ and _Banshees_ released tens of thousands of Interceptors and Strike Bombers to counter the strike craft of an entire Indoctrinated species.

Then, the Corvettes and Frigates surged forward, the former spamming false signals and AI-assisted virtual replications of dangerous gravitational anomalies that did not truly exist as the latter released torpedoes and micro missiles against alien strike craft and their carriers, Dreadnoughts jumping directly into the center of the alien formation and firing both magnetically accelerated ballistic projectiles as well as their own dual spinal mounted weapons into the ships around them, several alien Dreadnoughts and Battleships shattering under the force of the projectiles as their shields failed.

Then, several Stealth Frigates jumped into the inner orbit of what they could only assume was the homeworld of the Indoctrinated species, the visual feed affirming the horrible truth of the Vanguard's possible plan as several groundside shipyards showed signs of being converted into processing hubs and two Frigate-length Reapers rose from the surface, their single red optics glowing sullenly as the still active Relay 731 pulled them out of the system and toward the possible refuge that the Vanguard had taken within moments of them exiting the atmosphere.

Even as the three HSA fleets continued to slaughter the Indoctrinated vessels in what could very well be considered an act of mercy, two dozen _Devastator_ -class Heavy Dreadnoughts exited FTL in orbit of the Indoctrinated world, hatches opening toward the planet's surface and magnetic rails spinning up to full as they prepared to begin orbital bombardment.

One of the Heavy Dreadnoughts lowered its shields for a mere split second in order to allow the gravi-magnetically accelerated kinetic payloads to scream toward the surface, though this was very quickly ceased as one of the Reaper Frigates opened fire with its anti-orbital plasma cannon, coring a hole straight through the middle of the ship just before it opened fire with its single magnetohydrodynamic spinal mounted cannon and sliced a molten line into the fatally damaged Heavy Dreadnought.

Even as the ruined Heavy Dreadnought began fall toward the surface, caught in the gravity well of the dead world, the rest opened fire on select locations across the planet, each of the 840 kinetic rods striking their targets with several megatons of force, reducing the fallen cities of a dead species became little more than craters as colossal clouds of dust and ash roiled forth, the surface becoming shrouded in darkness as the last remnants of a dead species were given the only mercy possible and six additional Frigate-length Reapers emerged from the destroyed world that had once been called home by the very species they had been created from, their red optics glowing as they began to open fire in an attempt to slow humanity's advance toward the Vanguard's location.

Even as the Heavy Dreadnoughts began to shift back, returning fire with heavy plasma cannons and particle lances, three Reaper Frigates shifted their positions via FTL, appearing directly above the human bombardment vessels and clamping onto their target, their mechanical feet overloading its shields with sheer brute force as they began to tear holes into the much larger ship with their biotics, response teams both human and synthetic unable to stop the tide of alien husks as Oculus drones began to sabotage internal systems while acting as internal fire support for their formerly organic brethren and the three Reaper Frigates continued to burrow their way into the hull of the dying Heavy Dreadnought.

Even as the rest of the human fleets continued to slaughter the Indoctrinated vessels, killing what were now the last remnants of a dead species in a form of unfortunate mercy, the two Brethren Moons exited FTL above the infested vessel, letting out of a scream of hatred and mourning as they began to burrow the smallest of their tendrils into the armored hull of the Heavy Dreadnought and physically tore the Reaper Frigates from within the ruined hull of the ship, causing fatal internal damage as the ship began to split apart at the middle and entire sections of the ship were sealed against the void itself.

The three Reaper Frigates began to struggle, their quantum shields disabled as the force of an entire planetoid was brought against them, their feral attempts at escape futile as the Moon holding them began to crush them in its tendrils, adding more and more pressure until the Reaper Frigates were encased in the flesh of their oldest enemy and crushed until little remained but three misshapen cylinders of flesh and alloy.

Meanwhile, the three remaining Reaper Frigates began to retreat, attempting to draw the battle out for as long as possible in order to stall the humans even as the _Dying Star_ exited FTL directly ahead and ineffectually fired a Phase Bullet into the leading Frigate, the photon projectile collapsing against quantum shields as the _Fallen Angel_ exited FTL above them and fired an Ion Fusion Pellet into the shields of the second, the ineffective detonation washing across its shields and momentarily blinding its sensors with radiation even as the _Tau Volati_ 's Superheavy Laser swept over its shields in a vain attempt to discover any sort of weak point.

Then, the second Brethren Moon exited FTL "below" the two Reaper Frigates, lashing out with its tendrils and filling the space with oceans of acid even as the third Reaper Frigate decloaked and opened fire with its anti-orbital plasma cannon, punching a burning wound into the Brethren Moon as it began to slice a molten line into the surface of the planetary super-organism with its magnetohydrodynamic cannon.

All three Reaper Frigates soon experienced a sort of feral concern, attempting to cloak as the rest of the understrength human Battlegroup exited FTL all around them, the reclaimed Interceptors and Strike Bombers streaming from their motherships even as, approximately 778.5 million kilometers away from the formation, reality itself seemed to distort and several Etsaru with an extreme resemblance to the now-dead species that had formerly inhabited the world "below" emerged from the void itself.

Then, before the three Reaper Frigates could so much as process their very existence, one of the Etsaru glanced towards the system's star in what could be considered intrigue, and a message resounded within the mind of every being in the system, whether human, Synthetic, Necromorph, and even the Reaper Frigates, the combined minds of the Brethren Moons considering as they processed this new development with all of the mental power they could afford to spare.

" _Leave this place, those who are not Etsaru..."_

As one, the Etsaru seemed to shift their positions in an instant, gathering around the star even as several sections of the corona begin to sweep outwards, cutting through the void of space in scythes of stellar plasma, one of the inner planetoids ceasing to exist as it was caught by the very edge of one of the waves and sliced in two.

The gathered Etsaru seemed to expand, their starlit eyes becoming the size of large asteroids as they stared at the dying star in what appeared to be a mix of both compassion and pity.

 _"Though those who shaped your linked minds may no longer live within this time and place, siblings, know that you are not alone, for we will always remember them, and now...awaken, Sleeping Ones..."_

As if in response to the words of the gathered Etsaru, the star seemed to accelerate its demise, both the Reaper Frigates, Human fleets, and Brethren Moons entering FTL towards Relay 6630 in order to avoid the burning blades of stellar plasma, jumping through the Primary Relay together even as the dying star seemed to shift and churn, entire gas giants worth of stellar plasma flowing across its surface in immense waves.

Even as the three Reaper Frigates found their quantum shields inoperable and the two Brethren Moons smacked them out of existence, the dying star seemed to pulsate, rapidly ejecting several layers as the Etsaru watched patiently and several inner worlds were consumed by the accelerated supernova, finally revealing an outer core of pure Dark Energy, before even that was pushed away at FTL speeds and inner core was shown to the gathered Etsaru and all of those who observed the event through them, their Voices speaking in unison as they watched the twin entities who so resembled the now dead species who they had observed through their ancient dreams.

As one, the Etsaru welcomed their twin siblings into existence even as the Intelligence observed through the sensors of both Relay 6630 and 731 and still did not understand.

* * *

 **End of Chapter Eleven.**

 **Also, obligatory Discord server code post, because the last time I posted it was chapter five and I haven't really noticed many new people joining to talk about the story.**

 **UpuT3ar**

 **I mean, really, the story has over _three hundred_ Follows and Favorites, and yet the server itself is barely pushing twenty Hollows (the role given to those coming from FFN), half of which aren't even active as far as I can tell.**

 **Edit, August 27th, 2019: Reuploading chapter due to the distinct possibility that FFN failed to notify you all that the story had been updated the first time.**


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